


What are we going to do about it?

by stydiastydia



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Movie AU, Season 7 AU, Sleeping With Other People AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-02-09 21:08:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18646141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stydiastydia/pseuds/stydiastydia
Summary: “Dan, we just spent the entire evening talking about how we screw up every sexual relationship we’ve ever had.”Sleeping With Other People AU; Season Seven AU.





	1. Chapter One.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this season is not what I was expeting, but as I always say at least we have fanfic. Sleeping With Other People is one of my favorite movies and reccently I saw someone on tumblr mentioning that Lainey and Jake are what Dan and Amy could have been, so I had to write this fic. 
> 
> Timeline: This story takes place on season 7 but Amy isn't pregnant.

One thing Amy learned from working for Selina for almost twelve years is that if one thing goes wrong, eventually, everything else will. It’s not like they're not competent, well, okay, most people who work in Selina’s team aren’t but she knows she’s very good at her job _ thank you _ . Ben’s been doing it before she was even born and considering he fucking hates his family and doesn’t seem to have a hobby outside the political world his job is the only thing he focus on. Kent also does a good job, he’s great with polls and numbers and can use the most boring data in their favor. Dan’s okay too, when he wants to be, she guesses, but the rest? Fucking useless. 

 

How the hell no one bothered to check which airport Selina was supposed to arrive? She didn’t even know who was responsible for that, and of course Selina is gonna blame her because recently everything thing is Amy’s fault. Earthquake in South America? Amy’s fault. A rare species of frog got extinct? Amy’s fault. Andrew Meyer stopped at Selina’s office to have a word with her? Amy’s fault because apparently she should have told him to go fuck himself. 

 

Pretty much like a domino effect, everything else went wrong for the rest of the day: the site wasn’t live yet, they had no idea when Selina would announce she’s running for president, the t-shirts came in the wrong color, Richard was working on both campaigns - Selina’s and Jonah’s- and no one mentioned yet how this is gonna fuck them up one way or another, she hired the wrong guy, Gary freaked out about an unimportant problem which gave her a headache, no one listened to the long list she wrong about every problem they had in the last election, and so on. 

 

She needed a drink. Or five. 

 

She didn’t want to talk to anyone but searching for a place in the other side of town just to have a peaceful moment seemed too much work, she decided to just stay at the hotel. The hotel bar was full of journalists so she goes straight to the bar before someone tries to have a conversation with her, she’s way too familiar with this move, they usually ask about any random thing, like they’re not working and just wanna have a casual conversation but it’s just small talk hoping she will give them any information. She’s not naive. She catches a glimpse of Mike in the back of the room having a beer with his co-workers from BuzzFeed, it’s quite funny actually, he looks like their dad, it wouldn't be a surprise if someone asked for their ID, they look barely twenty. It would be nice to catch up with Mike, she kinda missed having to deal with his daily fuck ups, at least he seemed to care about her as a friend, or he just listened without interrupting her, that’s a friendship in her definition. Somehow, it all seemed easier back then. Is she really starting to miss the time she worked at the West Wing? That was fucking chaotic. She’s gonna need something stronger than the whiskey she just ordered. She plays with her glass after drinking it, orders her second drink and checks her email. When she’s finishing writing a message to Kent she feels someone sitting next to her and because she already knows this day is only gonna get worse she doesn’t even have to look up to know that it’s Dan. 

 

He’s still wearing the same grey suits he wore earlier, she hates when he looks so good.

 

Things have been awkward between them for the past two months and dealing with him right now is the last thing she wanted to do. It’s the last thing she needed in this moment. She’d rather listen to Catherine talk about motherhood. Or, you know, listen to Catherine talk in general.

 

They slept together and never talked about it. He didn’t even teased her about that night. She can handle Dan being an asshole, she’s already used to it, but this is so much worse. Walking around eggshells is torture. She wishes he would just say something mean or  _ who knew you screamed that much, Ames _ , in that annoying voice of his, so they could go back to normal and forget that night happened. Instead of dealing with this they just ignored what happened. They never talked about how they weren’t that drunk, or the way he placed soft kisses on her tights when he went down on her, or how she said his name on his ear when she came for the second time, they never talked about the fact that they had sex again in the following morning before Amy left for the meeting with Selina, they never mentioned how it felt so much intimate this time or how it felt so normal when they were laying in bed naked afterwards, checking their phones, legs tangled, like it was something they did every single day. 

 

Talking is what they do best. Not about their feelings or any sentimental bullshit, never, but they’re good at talking about everything else, their minds work in similar ways, they get each other’s sense of humor and now it’s ruined because they were too horny to just go home. 

 

It’s so unlike them not saying the first thing that crosses their minds no matter how horrendous, dreadful, disastrous it is. It’s like there’s suddenly a filter after they slept together for the first time after almost 10 years. She fucking hates filters. She fucking hates herself for sleeping with him again. 

 

“What a shit show”, he says after ordering a drink. They don’t do _ hi _ or general politeness. She prefers it that way. 

 

It’s not the worse thing they’ve dealt with, far from it, but she gets it, she’d rather solve a national problem then deal with this stage of the campaign. It’s boring and it’s leading them nowhere. Most of their meetings are useless and it’s usually Selina talking nonstop. Everyone in D.C who has a brain knows Selina is running for president, it's not a surprise, but they can’t do anything besides plan and research before she officially announces it. Amy loves planning, especially if she can do it alone in her office with no one bothering her, but there’s nothing new anymore, she’s already planned everything, imagined all scenarios. At least it’s better than working on that fucking library. 

 

“If Selina doesn’t announce her campaign in the next 48 hours i’m gonna do it myself”, she declares, not taking her eyes off her drink. 

 

“She would kill you.” He warns her as if she doesn’t know Selina better than he does. She hates when he does this. It’s so Dan. 

 

Amy takes a sip of her whiskey and places the glass on the counter, she’s not in the mood to start an argument over this right now so she just chooses to ignores it. “It would be nicer than being here”, she finally says. 

 

“Yeah.”

 

Dan doesn’t elaborate on that and the silence starts to bother her in a way it never did before. They used to be so good with silence. When they were lobbying Dan used to go to her apartment every sunday so they could strategize for their next meetings or brief her about a new client, he never used to leave when they were done and she never asked him to. Once they were done they would just do their own work and answer their emails in silence, occasionally glancing at each other. After a while he would ask her if she wanted to order something to eat, she had a feeling she would always forget to eat if he didn’t ask but it’s not like he ever noticed, and they would spend about forty five minutes trying to decide which movie they were gonna watch because he’s a pain in the ass and hated everything she suggested just to annoy her. Most nights they would give up on choosing a movie and spent the rest of the sunday just talking, drinking and eating chinese food from Amy’s favorite restaurant in her neighborhood. She told herself this kept happening because they weren’t used to having free weekends and because they didn’t have anyone else to do these kinda of stuff with, not because they enjoyed each others companion. She hated meeting new people so making friends wasn’t exactly her priority, it was easier to just hang out with him. Wow, it felt like forever ago.

 

“How’s BKD?” she’s not really interested but asks for lack of a better subject.

 

Even though Dan, Ben and Kent seem to be working full time on Selina’s campaign they’re still running their office in D.C., getting new clients, networking a lot and sometimes staying half of the week in New York to meet important clients. She knows once Selina announces her campaign they will spend more time than they already are spending with the team, she still doesn’t know if that’s a good idea considering she hasn't had a normal conversation with Dan in weeks. Even at work they try to avoid each other these days. 

 

The bartender places their drinks on the table. It’s her third one already, last time they drank in this speed they spent the rest of the night having sex. She’s too smart to make the same mistake twice, thought.

 

For the sixth time, actually, if she remembers correctly.

 

“Good. We still have a office for you, you know.”

 

That meeting at BKD was the first time Amy saw him after that night, she felt an awkwardness she hasn't feet in years. He was charming as hell, obviously, because he wanted her to work with them. She knew she would have a voice there but for some reason she didn’t know how to leave Selina, she couldn’t imagine having this conversation with her without blowing everything. And without a doubt they still have a place for her, she’s Amy Brookheimer, after all. They’d be lucky to have her. 

 

“We’re going to get Selina elected,” she says faking a confidence she doesn’t have in the moment but she will once Selina finally announces. She knows Selina can win this election, she’s not a new face, America doesn’t actually hate her, honestly there’s no one better than her for the job, at least not in the moment. She knows Tom James is gonna run and she knows he will find a way to fuck Selina over but she doesn’t think he’s a real threat, yeah he’s charismatic as hell but Selina can be too. Or she can fake it. She likes working with Selina, well, not so much lately, she’s been meaner than usual, but Amy doesn’t wanna think about her career options right now.

 

She waits for his reaction. 

 

As if he just read her mind he drops the subject completely and continues to talk about BKD. “I’m flying to D.C tomorrow night to meet a client since we won’t have so much free time once Selina announces”, he informs her. 

 

“You’re not gonna be with the team for the weekend?”

 

“That’s three days from now. What the hell are you guys gonna do here, anyways? Besides, I’m staying in D.C only for the night. Afraid you’re gonna miss me?”

 

“You wish,” Amy takes a sip of her drink and orders a bottle of water, trying to decide if she’s done with alcohol for the day. “It must be an important client.”

 

“According to Ben every client is important since BKD is new” he tries to imitates Ben’s voice and fails making her laugh even more “which i don't agree, we all worked in the White House for fuck’s sake, we’re not interested in small clients and even Ben knowns. This could be a big one though, otherwise I wouldn't go.”

 

“And they’re letting you go all by yourself? That’s bold.” She likes to make fun of him telling Ben and Kent are the ones in charge and they only invited Dan to be the pretty face. It’s getting old but it always works.

 

“Ha. Very funny, my power of persuasion is very good,” he says dryly. “It’s better if it’s just me with this client though, we fucked a few years ago, she might wanna do it again tomorrow”. 

 

She rolls her eyes at him. 

 

“Ugh, I hate this”.

 

He gets closer to her and Amy already knows he’s gonna say something stupid. 

 

“Jealous?”

 

She knows he’s playing with her. It’ their old banther coming back and she would be lying to herself if she says she doesn’t enjoy it. “As if. I feel sorry for every woman who’s had the displeasure of meeting you”.

 

“Even you?” Dan asks.

 

“That’s the thing, I know the real you, I know what a jerk you are, so this sweet talk you use with everyone else doesn’t work with me.”   
  


“It did when we dated”, Dan reminds her. 

  
They’re entering a dangerous territory now. 

 

She knows they both love it. 

 

“That wasn’t dating. That was a week of tedious sex”, she lies. 

 

“That’s not how I remember it.”

 

She stops herself from asking what he remembers. “Sure.”   
  


“And it was two weeks.” His eyes rolls at her and he takes a sip of his drink. 

 

“One week,” she says, she’s pretty sure she’s right, “and you were probably seeing someone else.”

 

He smirks at that. What a fucking asshole. “Sharing is good, Amy, no one ever taught you that?”

 

“I’m surprised you didn't give me any sexual diseases.”

 

“If it makes you sleep better at night you must know that our brief relationship was completely monogamous.”

 

“Yeah, I haven’t been able to sleep well for the past ten years because I didn’t know that,  _ thank you, Dan. _ ” She emphasises and that makes him laugh. A real laugh, one she didn’t get from him since  _ that _ night.  “Get over your fucking self,” she adds. “Anyway, what I was trying to say before you got over your head is that I hate that guys use sex to their benefit so much and get away with it, if I did what you do half of D.C would slut shame me and never take me seriously again.”

 

“Fuck them,” he says, “why don't you just it?”

 

“I know you don’t believe but we are very different, I don’t like to use people like this.”

 

“Why not?” He finishes his whiskey. “Don’t act like you’re so superior, you manipulate people all the time. Sex gets you what you want and you have a good time. It’s a win win.” 

 

“Gross, Dan. You do realise these women hate you for that right?”

 

“Yes, thanks for pointing it out, that keeps me up at night.” He says sarcastically.  

 

“What happens when you decide to have a normal relationship?” She doesn’t really think it’s gonna happen, Dan would have to be human to feel real emotions and she’s certainly he isn't, but she knows he’s smart enough to realise this bachelor life won’t work for him forever. 

 

“Have you met me?”

 

“Yeah. I always imagine you dying alone and someone finding your body in your office four days later, that always kept me from murdering you when you first came to work for Selina.”

 

“How sweet, I always knew you used to spend your days fantasizing about me,” he gives her a shy smile.  “Let’s face it, when it comes to relationships we’re the same. We fuck up every single one we have.”

 

“At least I try.”

 

“And I don’t?”

 

“And you fuck it up on purpose once you realize the woman you’re seeing isn’t gonna help your career anymore, but sleeping with someone to get five minutes on TV isn’t what I call a ‘relationship’”, she says because she knows he never slept with Jane but it’s so appropriate to use this against him, she knows how much he hates this but no one ever said Amy Brookheimer plays fair. “I’m pretty sure you never liked anyone besides yourself.”

 

Without realising it, she used the same sentence on the day they slept together, there’s no way to unsay it, she hopes he doesn’t remember. They were still in the bar, six drinks in, talking about something so random she can’t even remember right now. 

 

_ I’m pretty sure you never liked anyone besides yourself _ , unlike tonight, back then she said it as a challenge, she said it to see how far he would go. They were testing their limits that night, something she knows she wouldn’t do again, not without that level of alcohol in her body.

 

_ Did you ever stop to think that I might like you?  _ He asked staring at her and she had no idea what to say. They dropped the subject for a while. 

  
This time he doesn’t say anything remotely close to it. 

 

“Remind me again, when was the last time you had a real relationship? Wasn’t with that fucking cowboy I destroyed on live television?”

 

“You’re giving yourself way too much credit, Buddy destroyed himself and I finished the job.” She says it do dryly, without missing a beat, it turns him on. 

 

“By the way, what were you thinking when you decided that leaving to live in Nevada with him was a good idea?”

 

_ You fucked my sister. I hated my job. I hated D.C. I needed to get away from that toxic place. I needed to get away from you. _

 

She sighs, “I needed a change of heart.”

 

“Don’t do that again.” His tone is so sincere, it always sounds like a plea, it makes her wanna bury her face in his neck and stay there forever.

 

_ Don’t be stupid, Amy, _ she tells herself.

 

“Anyways, I like to keep my personal life away from my my professional life,” she replies instead, ready to never talk to him about Nevada or Buddy or her sister ever again. She wasn’t joking when she said she would only date outside of D.C. Now she just had to find the time to meet people who don’t work in politics, but that’s not her priority right now, the election is.    
  


“And what personal life would that be, Ames?” Dan asks with a mean tone in his voice. She knows he’s having fun with this.   
  


“Fuck you.” She gives him a fake smile. They’re too good at this. She hates that she missed their banther. 

 

“No, I’m serious, really.  What have you been up to lately?” he asks and before she has the chance to say anything the continues, “and don’t say work.”   
  


“If you must know, I had a date last weekend”, Amy tells him.

 

“How was it?”

 

She knows he doesn't really care, he’s only doing this to annoy her and prove a point, so that’s why she lies, she always hated losing, she’s away too competitive for that and she can’t lose to Dan. “Fantastic. The sex was great.” 

 

The date was boring as hell, she had the urge to check her email every two minutes and halfway through dinner she said she had a work emergency and left without bothering with details, only saying the previous president of the United States needed her in that very moment.

 

“Good for you.” 

 

She feels a tip of jealousy in his tone and already feels the victory. One fucking point to Amy Brookheimer. 

 

“Did you see him again?”

 

“Well, I came here the day after so no but once I go back to D.C I might see him again.”

 

“Atta girl.” He stands up, checks his phone and starts to leave, “It’s been a pleasure as always, Amy, but i’m gonna fuck Mike’s boss.”

  
  


*

  
  


Even thought this hotel isn’t the best they’ve stayed in, the shower is fucking amazing, she even loses track of time. Turns out, hot water is all she needed at the end of this (almost) chaotic day. After she gets out of the shower she washes her face with a light face scrub, applies some serum, a moisturizer and a vanilla lip balm. She doesn’t relax, she doesn’t think she is capable to anymore, but doing her skincare routine and reading a book after is the closest thing she will ever come close to relaxing. She’s still tired but she definitely feels better now.  Amy wraps the towel on her body and leaves the bathroom, ready to finally put on her pjs and get some sleep. 

 

However, when she returns to the bedroom she finds Dan Egan laying on the bed, flipping though the book she’s reading at the moment.

 

“Romance,” he puts the book away, next to her phone which is charging at the moment, “seriously, Ames? I always thought you were a biography only kind of girl.”

 

She adjusts her towel, why couldn't she have fucking minute of peace? 

 

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

 

He looks up, puts his hand on the back of his head and stares deadly at her.

 

“I’m sharing a room with Gary.”

 

She ignores him and opens her suitcase, not moving too much so that the towel stays in its place. She grabs a black lacy underwear and doesn’t look up because she knows Dan is still staring at her, she doesn’t bother with a bra because she’s gonna kick him out her hotel bedroom as soon as she puts on some clothes. If there weren’t so many journalists there she would just open the door for him to leave not caring that she was naked, with nothing besides this tiny towel. She takes a second to find her pjs, she packed three options because she doesn’t know when they will be back in D.C. Amy ends up choosing a soft black short and her grey Penn shirt instead of the pink one she wore last night because it’s prettier. It’s not because Dan is there, she tells herself, she just likes the grey shirt better and goes back to the bathroom to change.

 

When she leaves the bathroom he is still there but he’s already took off his tie and shoes and is looking away too comfortable, checking his Twitter feed, cleary thinking he’s gonna stay there for a while.

 

Before she has the chance to open her mouth he explains “I thought I could hang out here for a while.”

 

_ Dream the fuck on, Dan. _

 

“That’s not my problem.” Amy replies, laying on the bed, feeling too tired to open the door to him. He can find it himself. “And how the fuck did you get into my room?”

 

“That door wasn’t locked.” He points to the door that connects to his and Gary’s room.

 

She turns to the bedside table to turn off the lights and check if she had received any new text or email. 

 

“Well, you can leave and please lock it on your way out.”

 

“C'mon Amy, sharing a room with Gary is the worse, even you don’t hate me that much to let me experience that”, Dan complains but she knows he always has an ulterior motive.  He always has.

 

“Like I said, not my problem”, she turns to face him,  “and besides, what made you think I was gonna agree with this?”

 

They’re close and from this angle she can see a few shades of grey in his hair.

 

“Last time we shared a bed was fun.”

 

“So that’s the reason”, she rolls her eyes, “what? Mike’s boss turned you down?”

 

“Five minutes of small talk made me realise I wasn’t really interested in her.”

 

“You’re fucking unbelievable, Dan.”

 

“I’m just being honest and It seems like you could use some fun”.

 

She’d be furious at him if she wasn’t so used to him being the biggest jerk in the world. She considers it for a second, it would be fun, it would relax her and she would be using him as much as he would be using her. But she can’t go back. Whatever they have or had hurts too much to relive just for the sake of sex. She practically ran away to Nevada when he hurt her feelings, for fuck’s sake. She wants to close that chapter of her life, she’s already moved on, no, not ‘moved on’ because there were no feelings ever in the first place, just a good sexual chemistry. 

 

“Dan, we just spent the entire evening talking about how we screw up every sexual relationship we’ve ever had.”

 

“And?”

 

Of course this isn’t a big deal for him. He doesn’t give a fuck.

 

“We’ve done that. It doesn’t work for us.”

 

“You had a different opinion a few weeks ago,” he says smirking at her and places his hand on her cheek and then puts her hair behind her ear. From the tone of his voice seems like he’s just woken up, and her heart aches because she discovered a few years ago that this is a tone reserved just for her.

 

She shakes the idea and stops reading too much in between the lines and decides that it’s better to get straight to the point, “okay, let’s say we have sex tonight, then what? We spend another two months barely talking to each other?”

 

“I don’t see how it would be possible, considering the campaign. We could always text instead.”

 

“Dan.” She says seriously, he’s the only person she can stand right now, she’s tired of getting hurt, she’s tired of not knowing how to behave around him.

 

“In this scenario we would have to at least work together, right?”

 

“Is that what you want?”   
  


He takes a deep breath “No, not really.” 

 

She thinks he’s gonna drop the subject, maybe leave her alone in the room like she asked him to and-  “We suck at this”, he laughs and lays on his side, looking at her.

 

“Yeah, we do”.

 

“Who knew friends with benefits would be so hard”, Dan blinks and smile against the pillow. 

 

“That would require us actually being friends, Dan”, she says and he immediately makes a face.

 

“Don’t hurt my feelings, Amy.” He says, pretending that he’s hurt. He still is running his fingers through her hair, she likes it so much that she doesn’t tell him to stop. “You know you’re the only person I can actually count on, right?”

 

“Even more reasons why we shouldn't ruin what we have.” 

 

She doesn’t really know what they have, a weird friendship? An alliance? Anyways, she’s too tired right now to find out.   
  


“Yeah.” he says and she doesn’t know if he actually believes it.

 

Amy feels like they’ve talked about their feelings today more than they ever did in the ten years they’ve known each other. It’s fucking exhausting. 

 

Her phone vibrates, a new message from Kent.

 

“Kent texted that Selina’s gonna announce tomorrow,” she informs him and puts her phone away. Thank God. She was getting bored. The kind of rush and adrenaline you can only get from working in a campaign is what got her into politics. She’s finally gonna feel like she knows what the hell she’s doing. She’s finally gonna feel like she’s in control again. “If we’re gonna have to spend more than sixteen hours a day as a team and traveling all the time we can’t let our personal issues get in the way”, she adds because she doesn’t need more problems to deal with.

 

“We work better as a team”. 

 

_ You know, we could still be great, _ he said once, many years ago.

 

“Exactly.”

 

“So, what are we gonna do?”   
  


Amy knows damn well they would never work, it would be a fucking disaster, the idea of them having casual sex or even dating is too ridiculous to think it would ever work out. Dan doesn’t do relationships. She never did the whole ‘no strings attached’ thing. She doesn’t think she’s able to sleep with him on a regular basis without developmenting feelings. And feelings never got her anywhere. They had to get Selina elected, nothing could take their minds off their goal. On the other hand, just because they don’t work well that like  _ that  _ doesn’t mean they don’t work well together at all. They both love to plan and manipulate, every time they have ever worked together on something was fantastic. They’re good together as friends, as a team. No one would stop them, they could even destroy the world if they wanted to. 

 

“Let’s just be friends, for real, this time”, she suggests and closes her eyes, ready to get some sleep, that was her final offer, there was nothing else to talk anymore. And there’s no need to explain it further, she knows Dan gets it.  He gets that this isn’t some type of “let’s have lunch twice a week and catch up” kinda of friendship, they don’t have time or patience to do that, it’s more like ‘if you jump I jump’. Them against the world. 

 

“Sundance and Butch?” He questions and his hand move away from her hair. She didn’t even notice he was still doing that for such a long time. 

 

She’s glad that he understood her, though. She likes that she doesn’t have to explain herself to him, he just gets it, simple as that. She likes to think she’s not transparent but when it comes to Dan she thinks she might actually be.   
  


“Uhum,” she says sleepy and holds her pillow closer, “apart from the dying part yeah, sounds good.”

 

“Ames?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Are you still gonna let me sleep here?”

 

“I never said I would.” she answers because no matter how tired she is she still has the energy to give him a hard time.  “Gary can’t be that bad.”

 

Lie. She bets he carries a framed photo of Selina on his bag and places it on the bedside table of every hotel room he stays in. Sharing a room with Gary must be fucking terrible but that would be a way for Dan to suffer for his behaviour. 

 

“You know the guy, he hangs Selina’s dresses everywhere in the room and keeps starting at it, it’s borderline obsessive”, he says.  

 

Dan laughs and returns his hand to her hair. It’s so intimate but somehow it doesn’t feel strange. 

 

“Ok, but if you come close to my side i’m gonna kick your ass.”

 

“You’re the one who moves around all night.”

 

“Bullshit.” Ok, maybe it’s true but she’s not gonna let him know that he’s right.

 

“Then why did we wake up with you on top of me?” Of course he mentions that night again, if his fingers on her hair didnt feel so good she would actually kick him out of her room this time.    
  


“That’s not even remotely close to the truth, you were the one who put your arms around me.”

 

“Sure, keep telling yourself that.”

 

“I still can kick you out of my room”, she reminds him. It’s such a childish argument but can’t help it. 

 

“You wouldn't.”   
  


“Oh, you know I would. So shut up before I do”

 

“Good night, Ames.”

 

“Good night, Dan.”

  
The next day when they wake up Amy’s face is on top of Dan’s chest, her hair is behind her ear, preventing from falling on her face, he must had done that when she fell asleep, her hands are close to his neck, almost hugging him. Dan has his right arm wrapped on her waist, pulling her closer to him. There’s almost no space between the two of them. When their alarms go off almost at the same time it takes a minute for them to go back to reality and leave the bed and get ready to a meeting with Ben, Kent and Leon West to discuss Selina’s campaign announcement. They meet for breakfast to discuss some final details before meeting the others, and pretend that this isn’t a big deal, friends sleep like that all the time.    



	2. Chapter two.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Dan try to be friends and being Amy’s friend is...interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank u for your kudos and comments on the first chapter! 
> 
> I really wanted to post this before the series finale because I need to start writing chapter 3 to avoid thinking about how this episode is gonna be. 
> 
> For those who watched the movie you’ll notice some events don’t happen in the same order, I changed a bit because in my head that’s what makes more sense for dan and amy and the story. Oh, one of my main problems this season is how awful selina has been towards amy, i’m hoping to chance that in one of the chapters, not this one tho.

“Yeah,” Amy says on the phone pacing back and forth when Dan enters her office, “but i’m gonna need you to shut the fuck up for a second and read that email I sent you ten minutes ago, that’s considering you can actually read something that isn’t your Twitter feed”. She’s wearing a dark grey dress and he can see her curves perfectly, her hair is slightly waved, she looks furious, her blue eyes wide awake as she waits whoever is on the other side of the line to do something right. He would be lying if he said she doesn’t look hot. 

 

He hands her a cup of coffee, she takes it, muters “thank you” and goes back to scream on the phone. They still haven’t found a coffee shop they love near this building, every morning for the past week they tried a new one but from the look on Amy’s face when she drinks it, it looks like they have found the one. The first coffee shop was good, nothing special about it but the second and third were horrible, Selina’s first order as president if she gets elected should be shutting down those places. He’s glad he ordered with two shots of espresso, it looks like she needs it. 

 

Being Amy’s friend is...interesting. Obviously the good thing is that Amy’s acting normal around him again. As matter of fact, he doesn’t think they’ve ever been this comfortable around each other, not since they were lobbying together anyway.  They’ve been spending most of their times together, whether they’re working on the campaign or not. He’s getting used to having her all the time but it’s not all fun and games, though. Amy saying she wanted to be his friend, his real friend and nothing more made him realise that maybe that door he always thought would be there is now closed forever. For some reason he always thought there was a possibility, maybe it’s because she is the only person he doesn’t mind spending time with. Or maybe it’s because they always have great sex. It’s not that he likes her, no, he just don’t mind being around her. As much as he wanted to say that they could do this and still have sex without being in a relationship he knows she would think he only wanted sex. He didn’t wanted a relationship, he’s Dan Egan. And it’s not like Amy is crazy about him, either. She would probably tell him to go fuck himself. He couldn’t find a way to make her understand this but it didn’t matter, he missed her so much that just being near her is enough for him, oh God, what fucking happened to him? It’s the first time they’re acting normal since Nevada, he never admitted to himself how much he missed her until now. They won’t hook up anymore, that’s against their unsaid rules, but fuck it, if it means he can have Amy all the time he will fucking take it. He can find other women to fuck but he can’t find someone else to be  _ his _ Amy. No one will ever come close. 

 

At this stage of the campaign they’re mostly traveling from one place to another but once they’re back in D.C Selina finally chooses a place to be her campaign headquarters, even though the team will continue travelling all the time. The place is very Selina. The office covers the entire twenty-fifth floor, has big glass windows and is located in the heart of the city. There’s two meeting rooms, her main office and a few smaller ones. It’s ten minutes away from BKD, which is great but it’s not that it matters that much since Dan, Ben and Kent spend pretty much all day there. When they’re not in meetings and he has no reason to go back to his actual office he just hangs out in Amy’s, he could just find one empty but he likes the lavender smell of it. And annoying Amy while she works is a bonus. 

 

Dan sits on a chair, drinks his coffee while checking his email and Twitter and waits Amy to finish her phone call which takes another ten minutes. 

 

She sighs and he swears she would throw her phone at the window if it wasn’t glued to her hand. 

 

“You want something?”, she says sitting in her chair and looking deadly at him. 

 

Yeah, it’s only 9am and she is already furious. 

 

“Good morning to you too”. 

 

“No, not really, I’ve wasted fifteen minutes of my life trying to get an inter to do something right for once in his life before I fire him. Can you believe it’s the second time people get the airports mixed?” 

 

“I would just fire him.”

 

He’s been fired too many times and it sucks but he doesn’t mind firing someone else. 

 

“You can’t fire someone just because they’re dumb and inexperience, they will vent on Twitter about it, it doesn't look good for the campaign”, she says taking another sip of her coffee. 

 

“So now we care about the interns’ feelings.” 

 

“We need the young people’s vote which means nothing negative about Selina on social media. There’s too much already.”

 

“You like that one, huh?”, he points to the coffee she’s drinking. 

 

“It think our search is finally over,” she says looking at the logo on the cup, for a second she looks so relieved, “I still need to know if they have good almond croissants.”

 

“Wanna meet there for breakfast tomorrow?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“It’s a date,” he winks at her, “I have to deal with Leon West now, see you in the meeting.” 

 

Later that day Ben finds out Tom James was also attending Felix’s retreat and ruins everyone’s chance of having a good day. Of course Selina wouldn’t be the only one invited but because it’s Tom James and not Jonah Ryan or Buddy Calhum or any other person on the planet Selina fucking loses it. 

 

Amy’s mission now was to find out anything sketchy about him or anyone on his team but there’s nothing to find out which leads to Selina being furious at her.  _ If you can’t find anything just plant it _ , she said and left the room. Amy grabs her phone and leaves the room wondering why the hell she is putting up with this. 

*

 

As the weeks go by they find themselves in a routine and it’s nice. Amy always loved routines, it gives her a sense of balance, like everything is alright even if it isn’t, she doesn’t care that most people think it’s boring or that are far more exciting things one can do. 

 

Monday through Saturday are usually the same if they’re not travelling. She usually meets Dan for breakfast, has back to back meetings first thing in the morning, work, has lunch if there’s enough time, meetings again, work, work, drinks with Dan and finally she goes home. 

 

This routine also includes late nights at his apartment when they’re too tired to go to a bar which is hilarious to her because she kinda hates his place. It’s so bright and tidy that it doesn’t even looks like someone lives there. She knows her apartment isn’t the best example of interior design but at least she has some photos around.

 

It’s a wednesday night and they’re at his apartment, doing nothing after a busy day dealing with the campaign. He was the one who suggested it, not wanting to have to deal with anyone else in a public place. The TV is on but the volume is so low they can barely hear anything. Amy is lying on the couch and her head is in Dan’s lap because fuck it, she’s tired and his couch is way too comfortable, she might as well just sleep there. He’s running his fingers through her hair just like he did on the night they decided to be real friends. 

 

“I got a offer to work on Jonah’s campaign.” she says it suddenly, with a soft voice he doesn’t hear from her very often, it’s like the words barely left her mouth. It takes him by surprise, not because what she said and what may happen but because he thought she was asleep. 

 

He doesn’t say anything for a few seconds and she thinks her voice was so low he didn’t even heard her. Maybe it really was but she doesn’t wanna repeat herself.

 

“Did you take it?” 

 

“I’m supposed to give them my answer the day after tomorrow,” she informs. 

 

“Did you ask for campaign manager?” he doesn’t ask if she’s already decided because if she’s telling him this is because she already made up her mind. 

 

“Yeah.” 

 

“Good.”

 

“You’re not gonna say that i’m crazy?” she sits up beside him, it’s not like he lies to her, on the very contrary, he says everything, no matter how awful it is, but she has to look in this eyes for this, this isn’t some irrelevant situation she can just let it go, this is her fucking career. Asking someone who only cares about his career to say that she’s making the right move feels like the smart thing to do.  

 

“I don’t think you are,” he answers a bit confused, not knowing where this insecurance is coming from.

 

“I’m gonna leave Selina.” she says it as if it’s not obvious. As if she’s not entirely sure although she is. It feels so strange to actually say it. The idea of leaving still haunts her. But so does the idea of staying.

 

“And that’s gonna be good for you,” he reminds her because he knows that’s what she needs to hear. Amy never needed him or anyone else to help her make a decision. In fact, she never needed anyone for anything, he lov-  _ likes _ this about her. But he can sense the hesitation in her voice and while he is shallow and selfish and so many other things, lately he’s realized there’s a soft spot that’s reserved for Amy. He hates seeing her like this. 

 

“You don’t care that i’m gonna leave?”

 

“I do, I just can’t ask you to stay.” 

 

That wasn’t what she was expecting. If he asked her to stay it would make her go even more, not only that, she would be furious at him and they would fight. That wasn’t what she wanted but she wanted something. A reaction. An  _ are you sure, Ames?  _ Anything.  She didn’t expect him to be that honest about it. They’re so straightforward about everything but not about this, never about this. She guesses he’s finally taking her friendship offer seriously. 

 

“If course you can’t,” she laughs trying to brush it off, “don’t be ridiculous, Dan.”

 

She lies down back on his lap and eventually falls asleep with him playing with her hair. 

  
  


*

  
  


They’ve been listening to the radio, something she hasn’t done in ages. Every new song sounds exactly like the previous, that’s not a bad thing, she likes the consistency of it, it’s like listening to the same thing for twenty minutes and it is so calming.

 

It felt like a normal sunday morning, nothing special about it. For a second she could pretend that Dan arrived in her apartment unannounced, saying that he’s been leaving her millions of messages but she didn’t see it because her phone was charging at the kitchen and she decided to wake up two hours later for once in her life. There was an emergency on Selina’s campaign and they needed to travel somewhere to meet her as soon as possible. Even though her suitcase is on the back of the car she could pretend she didn’t even have time to pack a bag, she could buy some clothes once they arrive in their final destination or after dealing with the big mess Selina accidentally got herself into. Everything those days happened accidentally, anyways. She could pretend that it was Nevada all over again, minus her sister, and she would feel the same adrenaline she felt that day when they were yelling “Fuck, comma, Selina”. For a moment she could forget she was in route to Florida to work for that seven foot seven joke who believed he could be president. 

 

She’s glad her plane is leaving from the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It’s closer to the city, it’s less time to imagine other scenarios. 

 

She’s glad she decided to join Jonah’s campaign but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t feel strange. 

 

Talking to Selina was the worst part of it. She didn’t take the news well and for a moment Amy wished she had just emailed her instead of breaking the news in person. She had gone to Selina’s office, Gary was there and refused to leave because of fucking course he needed to be around Selina all the time, and began to pace nervously. Amy had a plan, a good one actually, she would thank Selina for everything she’s learned from her and say she got a better offer, she would say that she felt like she could be doing better things by managing a campaign herself. 

 

But everything went wrong because the universe hates her. 

 

When she entered the room she panicked and instead of prepare the territory she just bursted “Ma’man, I got a offer from Jonah and I decided to take it”.  

 

The next five minutes were filled with Selina telling her what a dumbass she was being and how she was gonna fail, Gary saying “how could you?” in the background and Selina saying how no one would be stupid enough to vote for Jonah no matter what Amy did.

 

She didn’t scream back or even reacted, she was so tired of dealing with this version of Selina that she just didn’t have the energy it requires anymore. 

 

It’s was a nightmare but at least she didn’t have to worry about it anymore. 

 

For the first time in her life she didn’t have to worry about Selina Meyer and what she wanted or how badly she screw something up or her desire to be president no matter what and that felt good. There was a rush of adrenaline in her body that she hasn’t felt in so long. She had no idea how Jonah’s campaign would be, it was kinda good not knowing what to expect. 

 

She realized Dan has been talking to her while her mind was somewhere else, instead of asking him to repeat she justs looks at him. Dan was wearing casual clothes, the same shirt he wore yesterday when he went to her apartment and he looked like he didn’t sleep at all. The previously night he asked her if she wanted to grab a beer but she was busy packing her suitcase so she guesses he went by himself when he left her place and came back from wherever he was to drive her to the airport. 

 

“You’re gonna be okay with me leaving?”, she asks, studying his face. 

 

Dan adjusts himself on the seat. 

 

“No, no, yeah, i’m fine.”

 

“Yeah,” she agrees with a little doubt.

 

“I just got used to have you all the time, that’s all”, he says after a while and she gets it. The past two weeks were so easy, she didn’t have to pretend in front of him, there was no sexual tension, okay, she has to admit it, maybe there was a little but they weren’t going to do anything about it so she didn’t have to care. It was nice to tell him to fuck off when they were having a work related argument and know that an hour later he would ask her to go to lunch somewhere far from the office to get away from that nonsense for a while. 

 

They talk about everything and nothing until it’s time to board. 

 

“Well, Ames, goodbye forever”, he says and places a hand on her shoulder.

 

She knows he’s joking. She will be gone for two weeks and then they’ll meet in their favorite restaurant in D.C or see each other in an event but still, hearing those words somehow make her heart ache a little. It’s gonna be weird working for Jonah, now she’s not even sure why she agreed on this, the man has less brain cells than anything she can think of. But if can do a good job which she knows she will she’ll be considered a fucking genius in D.C.

 

“Call me when you feel like exploding someone’s head”, she says knowing he always looked for her when he couldn't deal with anyone else.

 

“I might call you all the time then.”

 

She laughs, “Don’t.”

 

“Already cutting ties just because we’re not in the same team anymore?”

 

“Just don’t do anything stupid while i’m gone”.

 

“Can’t promise that.”

 

They stand still, looking at each other, not entirely sure what they are supposed to do next. Hug? Would that be weird?

 

She grabs his hand, brushing her fingers on his and places a kiss on top of his hand. A simple, spontaneous act that makes her wonder if she’s being too weird. Then he gives her a modest smile and she knows they’re okay.

 

“Goodbye forever, Dan.”

  
  


*

  
  


The good thing about working for Jonah is that everyone in his team knows he’s stupid, so, at the end of the day, everyone answers to her, even Richard. Well, especially Richard. Everyone knows they shouldn't trust his judgment and that everything he says it’s probably best to do the exact opposite. She’s always been good at her job, especially when there’s no one pushing her back. It’s not like Jonah isn't terrible, he is, but she never liked him, she never look up to him, it wasn’t personal.

 

For her surprise Beth, Jonah’s wife/half sibling, was actually nice to her. It’s not like they are friends, far from it, but it made Amy realize the lack of female friendships in her life. She’s never been that interested in making friends but when she and Beth share a few words she think it would be nice to have one. 

 

It’s quite funny to see interns roll their eyes at a candidate for presidency, not even the interns respect him. She’s not sure that half of them would vote for him anyways. Hell, even she doesn’t wanna vote for him, who in their right mind would? 

 

But, the truth is, when she lets herself forget to whom she’s working for, it’s actually nice. She’s alone in her office most of the days, strategizing, telling people over the phone what they have to do, setting up interviews and mostly doing damage control. And there’s a lot of damage control but she even managed to put her headphones on and listen to music on a quiet day. Sometimes she busier than she was when she was working for Selina, which is great because doesn’t have time to think about anything else when she’s in the office, it’s all work, she likes it that way. No one in his team, besides Richard, knows her. They’ve heard of her, like everybody who works in politics in D.C but they don’t know  _ know _ her. She can just leave at the end of the day and no one would text her to have a drink and discuss their next moves for the campaign. Or ask her to lunch at her favorite chinese restaurant just because she wouldn’t resist. For the first time in forever she can separate her job from her life. For the first time in months she can actually turn off her phones and enjoy a bath and drink some wine without the world ending just because she wasn’t available to resolve a minor problem that literally anyone else could have handled. 

 

She has no idea why Richard chose to work with both Selina and Jonah. Just being near either of them for five hours straight consumes more energy than normal, and he worships both of them which is crazy. 

 

And not being around Selina is...interesting. 

 

It’s not like she doesn’t miss it, for some unknown reason she does. But who can blame her? She’s been working with Selina for almost her entire career, she couldn't even find the courage to leave her and accept the job at BKD back then, a place where she knows she would have a voice and for what? To build a fucking library at the time?

 

As much as Selina was being awful to her lately there’s a part of her that still wishes things would go back to the way they were, when Selina at least acknowledged that Amy was a important part of her team. She misses working for someone she believes, someone intelligent, someone that yeah can be self centered all the time but cares about a few things, even if that someone is Selina Meyer. 

 

She doesn’t miss the constant need to make her feel inferior, though. 

 

At the end of a rainy afternoon Richard asked her if she could go live on CNN, a producer called saying that a spot opened in the last minute and it was a great opportunity to have someone like her in the show. Plus, it would help Jonah’s campaign once the public knew who his campaign manager was. Amy hates interviews, live television and everything that puts her on the spotlight, she had enough of that when she was dating Buddy. She remembers how he would tell her to relax and smile and it felt impossible to do either of those things.

 

She wanted to say no but this was a good opportunity, she’s been on this job for a month and being fired by Jonah Ryan would be a career suicide. She might as well move back to Nevada if that ever happened. 

 

It’s not like she had time to really prepare herself, she only had three hours from leaving the office to be on live television. And CNN usually asks the guests to arrive at least an hour before to arrange things. 

 

She went went home to take a shower and change her clothes, she’s been wearing the same outfit all day and a cold shower and removing her make up sounds life changing right now. This was her first public appearance since she quit Selina’s team, she had choose everything carefully.  She knew she had to make a good impression, especially since she didn’t believe Jonah could win the election, if she would make a bet she would put her money on Tom James. That guy is a fucking evil genius but he’s good with people. From the moment she got this job she knew it would be temporary, very short to be more specific. The plan was to do a good job, make Jonah’s numbers get high enough that people would realise how brilliant she is. The  _ I can make you president  _ line she said to him when they had their first official meeting was bullshit, no one could, only Jonah was stupid enough to believe, but it got her the job so she wasn’t complaining. 

 

On the way to the studio she checked her emails, there were some curriculums she won’t even bother checking, there was one from Mike asking if he would get a quote from her for his new article. She laughed every time she saw “Buzzfeed” attached to his name. There were two from Richard about their next meeting, and, one from BKD, she closed it before she could even see the subject. She grabbed her IPad from her purse to revise some of the topics she was supposed to talk about according to the brief Emma from CNN sent her an hour ago. 

 

She obviously had talk about the current political scenario in the United States, answer a few questions on the country’s economic situation, talk about health care, maybe they would ask her some question about the candidates since she has worked with Selina all her life and Tom in the last election, when he was supposed to be Selina’s Veep. Nothing she didn’t know in the tip of her tongue. She took a deep breath and told herself to calm the fuck down. 

 

However, she didn’t have to fake confidence, she was confident. She’s fucking great at her job and there was nothing and no one holding her back. And despite hating TV, and accidentally seeing an email she didn't wanna see, she was in a good mood. She ended up choosing a bright pink dress that she bought almost a year ago and never wore and put some makeup on. It felt like too much makeup, she’s not used to it but she really felt good. Amy usually tried to stay away from vibrant colors, wearing pretty much navy blue, black and grey and never getting out of her comfort zone. But she’s a new Amy now. She didn’t give a fuck. 

 

The segment goes well, thankfully no one commented that she recently left Meyer’s team and the anchor calls the break, they chat with the producers for a bit, they invite her to come back in the following week, saying that she should consider a career on television. Amy says she’ll think about it, she doesn’t like being on TV but it was fun and she’s trying to get out of her comfort zone anyways. And she has to have an option B for when Jonah loses. 

 

It’s half past eleven and now Amy can finally order some food, go home, put a face mask and relax. She checks her phone before leaving and sees four unread texts from Dan, instead of replying she chooses to call him later when she arrives home, it’s been so crazy lately that they haven’t catched up in a while. 

 

And that’s when she sees him. Ever since she started working for Jonah she hasn’t seem Dan even though she’s been in D.C for almost two weeks by now. Their schedule never seem to match. When he’s away she’s in D.C. when he’s in D.C. she’s away. They’ve been texting non stop but it’s not the same thing. She’s never been good at maintaining friendships, especially when she doesn’t see the person all the time. Maybe they will go back to what they were before this agreement since they don’t have to be around each other every day, the goal was to make this easier in a scenario where they work together anyway.

 

Dan’s wearing one of his expensive suits, standing near the editing island, with his soon to be salt and pepper hair and recently shaved beard, typing something on his phone without look at the screen, he’s watching her from afar. 

 

It’s her favorite look on him, she tells herself. As a matter of fact, it’s her second favorite look on him. She would never say it aloud, especially to him, but the way he looks when wakes up on her bed, legs tangled on hers, his face buried in her neck, placing soft kisses on it until they decide it’s time to go back to normal, will always have a soft spot on her heart. 

 

_ Stop having those thoughts about your best friend, _ she told herself.

 

Calling Dan her best friend was so weird. She had never even considered him a friend before but he has never been just her co worker. He was someone she liked to spend time with, nothing more. 

 

Should she be calling him her best friend? Where are they, friendship wise, now that they don’t work together anymore?

 

She has no idea why he is in the studio, according to the schedule she was the only guest tonight, maybe he is fucking someone who works there. 

 

When he becomes aware that she saw him he approaches her with that fake smile he always uses on interviews, “Amy”.

 

She blinks at him, already holding her phone tight to give her some short of comfort, waiting him to say something else. When he stays silent she realises she’s away too quiet. They would act normal around each other, there’s no reason not to. 

 

“Hi,” she puts her hair behind her ear, a habit that she absolutely hates, and hopes Dan doesn’t comment on her new look. “Haven’t seen you in a while”.

 

“Just arrived here actually, I heard you were gonna be on the show tonight so I thought I’d stop by”, he says looking at her, cleary absorbing her new look, she waits but he never says anything about it, which is very unlikely for Dan, he’s not capable of not saying anything.There was something strange going on. 

 

After noticing this she realises he’s not in his usual mood, he’s kinda quiet. It must be work related because he doesn’t have anything else going on in his personal life. Like ever. He doesn’t act like this when it’s personal. 

 

“You wanna catch up?” he asks her and comes closer to her.

 

“If you wanna some information about the campaign you’re not gonna get it from me”, she jokes because she doesn’t know how to handle him like this. 

 

Thinking he would just let it go she’s surprised when he says what he says next. 

 

“I’m not a fucking spy, Ames,” he smirks, “but I do wanna talk about the campaign.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think of this fic! 
> 
> As always, you can find me @ lilyscjames on tumblr.


	3. Chapter Three.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy goes on a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry for taking two weeks to upload a new chapter but I hated the finale (and this season) so much I needed a few days to not think about it. If you like this fic please leave kudos and comments!

“Shit.”

 

Dan realised as soon as the words left this mouth. He has been so stressed with the campaign lately and it’s not like he has anyone on Selina’s team that he can talk to, not in the way he talks to Amy, anyway. He just wanted to grab a drink with her, update her on his life, get his mind off things, after all they _ are  _ friends. 

 

That’s why he went to CNN as soon as he found out she was doing an interview. They haven’t seen each other in weeks and Amy wasn’t the best at replying his texts right away, even though she’s glued to her phone all day, so just showing up and seeing her in person was the best option. She would make a joke about how he was stalking her and they would get some drinks and catch up like they always do.

 

But instead he may have made the biggest mistake of his life. And he’s made plenty. He just told Amy that Keith Quinn killed Andrew Meyer. Even worse, he told that apparently Selina had told him to kill Andrew. If things were different Amy would be one of the first - probably only plus Gary - person to know about this and Dan would find out weeks later because Amy told him over drinks. But things are not as they used to be. She doesn’t work for Selina anymore. Whatever weird loyalty Amy had towards Selina doesn’t exist anymore and because of that she can do whatever she wants with this information. He finishes his drink, yeah, he’s really fucked. 

 

Amy wasn’t supposed to know this. Hell, he’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to know either. 

 

Dan’s done so much stupid shit in his life but giving information that could easily destroy a campaign and to the opposite side? That’s not even a freshman mistake. It’s a  _ you will never find another job in politics _ kind of mistake. He can always go back to TV, though, but he knew there was no real power there, it was just a contest to see who was the most popular, the prettier, the richest, and it was fun for a minute or two but nothing came closer than actual power. He doesn’t wanna get fired again, he’s even lost count of how many times he’s been fired in his career.

 

“What?”, Amy leans closer and asks, knowing he wasn’t supposed to say what he said and noticing the panic on his face.   
  


He knows she will play with his but he needs to be as direct as possible, from the look on her face she knows he wasn’t supposed to give her this information. “Promise you won’t use this”, he says not bothering with _ please _ .   
  


Oh, this is gonna be fun. So much fun. 

 

“What makes you think I would?”, she makes the most serious face she’s able to, she has no intention of running his life, not right now anyways, a few months ago she probably would. A few years ago she definitely would. Besides, she knew this accusation was too serious and he doesn’t have any proof, if they tried to use it they would look like the bad guys so truthfully, she’s not really doing this because of Dan. 

 

“Because I would”, he admits but doesn’t wait for her to have a reaction and takes a sip of his second drink which the bartender left at their table, he’s so nervous he doesn’t even remember ordering. Dan knows damn well she knows he would. 

 

He also knows that if they still worked together and they had this kind of information on other candidate they would make his or her life a living hell. 

 

Sometimes he plays this game on his head when he says stuff like this, stuff no one usually says so bluntly, which is basically paying attention on Amy as she processes the information. He likes to see what’s reaction gonna be, if she’ll blink right away, if her eyebrows are gonna move, if she’s gonna be surprised. The game got boring when he learned a few years ago that she’s never surprised by him. Like, ever. Horrified, maybe, a couple of times, but never surprised. It’s like she knows every awful thing he’s gonna say and either doesn’t care or agrees. He still pays attention, thought. 

 

“I know you would but that’s not even confirmed.” Amy says in a way that’s clear she’s not going to use this because of him. She bets he would love if that was the reason. 

 

He gets it right away and maybe that’s what makes him abuse his luck. 

 

“And what is on Jonah’s campaign, exactly?” 

 

She gives him a look and takes a sip of her drinking, not bothering to answer him.

 

“Thanks for not using this,” he realises if he continues being a dick about it Amy would use this information, “ It would really fuck me up.”

 

“I’m not not doing this because you.”

 

“Oh, I know.” He says ironically because he can’t help it and she rolls her eyes. “It sucks being on different teams.”

 

“Yeah, it does”, she admits. And it’s not like they were in the best terms when they were working together, for the majority of the time, but she can acknowledge that they have always been great at working together. As soon as things got easier between then Amy got a job on Jonah’s campaign so she will never know what would have happened if they continued working together, maybe it would be a fucking disaster, she doesn’t think they are capable of being close without fighting. 

 

“Do you know what's like to deal with those idiots by myself all day?”

 

“I’ve worked on her team way before you did and for years you were one of the idiots”, she reminds him. “Besides, at least Ben and Kent are there and it’s not worse than being around Jonah all day. Every day he does something stupid and wife slash sister just laughs as if he’s the funniest guy on the planet. It’s a fucking nightmare.” 

 

Now she’s the one who fucked up and he can read her face easily.

 

“Wait, what was that?” he asks smiling. 

 

Amy entire body shifts, she becomes tenser, she even places her phone closer to her, she doesn’t seem so relaxed like she was like a fucking minute ago. “What?”

 

He remembers asking her once, many years ago, when they just had done an interview for CNN, if he was that transparent and when he said he wanted access from the White House her reaction wasn’t what he was expecting, it was almost as if she was expecting an non work related question, he could see her so clearly back then, before Nevada and all the fucks ups and for a long time after he couldn't read her the way he always been able to but right now she’s as transparent as she was in that moment.

 

“You said…”

 

“Fuck,” she takes a deep breath, and he knows her, he knows she’s trying to decide what she is gonna say next, if she is gonna be honest with him or if she’s gonna feed him some lie and end this conversation.  “Beth is his sister. His  _ sister _ . Half-sister. Not his step sister.”

 

“Now, that’s a good story to leak”, he says but truly, he doesn’t really care, as horrible as it sounds he’s sure this isn’t the most shocking thing on Jonah’s campaign. And one of Selina’s main strategy is to ignore whatever Jonah does. She’s more concerned about Kemi Talbot, or even Tom James, that’s the real threat. 

 

“Dan, don’t.” she says and fuck him, honestly. Of course she couldn't trust him.    
  


“It’s gonna leak anyway.”

 

“You think I don't know?” she asks and puts her hands on her face and clearly she’s so done with all of this. She looks like a fucking bomb about to explode any minute. “God, I’m not stupid, I just would prefer if you weren’t the one who fucked me over.” 

 

“Ok.” He shrugs. 

 

“Just like that?” she takes her hands off her face and looks at him. “You actually think that i’m gonna believe you won’t use this without asking for anything in return?”   
  


In the most non Dan Egan possible way he places his hand on top of hers for comfort,  _ not _ because he gets the urgent need to feel her skin against his,  _ not _ because he misses touching her, “It may not look like but we’re on the same team, you know, even if we officially aren’t.”

 

*

 

As Amy unlocks her door and enters her apartment her phone lights up with a new message. She places her keys on the coffee table and opens it. She isn’t surprised when she sees who’s texting her. 

 

From: Dan Egan.

11:20

_ Thank you for keeping my secret. _

 

She smiles staring at the screen and hates when she realizes it, almost immediately she begins typing a new message.

 

To: Dan Egan.

11:21pm

_ As long as you keep mine. _

_ But let’s not talk about it anymore, if either one of our bosses find out we’re screwed. _

 

From: Dan Egan.

11:21 pm

_ Relax, Ames. We don’t work with Mike anymore. The chances of something leaking because someone made a mistake are close to zero. _

 

To: Dan Egan.

11:22 pm

_ Says the guy who told me something he wasn’t supposed to two minutes into a conversation. _

 

From: Dan Egan.

11:23 pm

_ Ha. fuck u, Ames.  _

_ What are u doing? _

 

To: Dan Egan.

11:24 pm

_ I was about to take a shower but you keep messaging me.  _

 

From: Dan Egan.

11:24 pm

_ You can always ignore me. _

 

To: Dan Egan.

11:24 pm 

_ Maybe I should.  _

 

A moment later her phone rings. 

 

“Dan, I can’t ignore you if you’re calling me”, she answers. 

 

“Let’s be real, you aren’t able to ignore me”, he says and his voice chances in the end of the sentence. She knows he realised that she is in fact able to ignore her. She was so good at ignoring him, the best, she did it for a entire year. But then again it’s not really ignoring when you move to another state and the other person doesn’t even call you. “Can I come over?”   
  


“We just saw each other.”

 

“And?”

 

“You miss me already?”

 

“There’s a marathon of _ Buffy  _ on TV right now,” he explains but really doesn’t, they just spent almost three hours talking at a bar, she isn’t used to hanging out with someone that much, she doesn’t even like being around anyone for that long but honestly today she doesn’t mind at all. “I know you love this show and we didn’t eat anything.” 

 

“Okay, come,” she agrees, it’s not like it’s the worst company in the world and she likes to talk to him while they’re watching TV and there’s no food in her apartment, she would have to order something anyway, “but I get to choose what we’re gonna eat today”.

 

*

 

In the middle of the campaign madness Amy found some free time to have lunch with Sue, and holy fuck, she needed this, they haven’t catch up in ages. Maybe the last time they saw each other was before Amy moved to Nevada, that was ages ago. It felt like a lifetime ago, too. 

 

Sue updated Amy on her life and they chatted about their old co workers for a little while, mostly making jokes about Mike and his Buzzfeed job. Everything goes well until Sue mentions she’s dating this guy for five months now and asks Amy if she’s seeing someone. She’s surprised by this because they aren’t close, they never used to talk about this subject when they worked together so Amy didn’t think it would be a big deal, maybe Sue was only asking to be polite, there’s no chance in hell she’s interested in Amy’s love life. Or the lack of it. She says that she’s been so busy with the campaign lately and trying to keep Jonah from making a bigger mess that what he’s already making and that she didn’t even have time to think about dating and meeting new people. However Sue didn’t seem satisfied with the answer, she didn’t say anything but from her face Amy knew it wasn’t enough, so, in a moment of completely stupidity Amy just kept talking about the subject and mentioned that the last guy she slept with was Dan, nearly four months ago. 

 

Amy hopes there’s some disaster in the campaign, anything that would make her phone ring and make her leave this lunch right now would be acceptable. 

 

“I honestly don’t know if you two are gonna kill or marry each other”, she replies and doesn’t seem surprised. 

 

“It’s not like that anymore,” she informs her friend, “for both options”.

 

What she meant it that it was never like that for the later option, and for the killing option they are actually getting along these days, she tries to correct herself but Sue is faster. 

 

“Sure, Amy. Keep telling yourself that”, she says with a grin.

 

“No, I’m serious. We aren’t interested in each other, we never were actually,” she says and even if she doesn’t sound convinced she actually believes this, there was a time that maybe she thought she had feelings for Dan but he went and slept with her sister and mentioned it to her every chance he got, everything she felt since then has been a mixture of hormones and nostalgia, she tells herself,  “and we found out we’re better as friends, anyway”.

 

“You’re still seeing him regularly?”

 

“Yeah.” she says but doesn’t mention he slept at her house two nights ago. That’s too much information. No one needs to know that they stayed up late until two am watching old episodes of a tv show, no one needs to know that Dan made his way to her bedroom like he’s familiar with the place, no one needs to know he made her waffles in the morning and they drank their coffees in silence reading the news. And Sue won’t believe nothing happened between them so there’s no point in mentioning any of this. 

 

Sue rolls her eyes.

 

“What? Just because we’re working on different campaigns doesn’t mean we can’t see each other. You work in the White House and I’m not trying to get information from you”, she adds because she knows Sue didn’t believe her. 

 

Ugh. She hates that Sue power of making people say things. She just stare seriously at a person and they feel intimidated and start talking non stop. Amy has watched this happen several times when they worked together but it never happened with her. She thought she was immune to it. 

 

“Oh, Amy. You know that’s not what I’m talking about. You’re smarter than this”.

 

“Of course I am, but seriously, there’s nothing going on.”

 

“So you won’t mind if I set you up with a friend of mine?”

 

“Like I said, I’m busy with the campaign”.

 

“It didn’t seem like you had a problem on your schedule when I called you”.

 

“Well, I happen to have this day off. Jonah’s too busy playing video games with Richard to have a meeting”, she knows how ridiculous this sounds but it’s true. 

 

“Remind me again why you’re working for that guy.”

 

“Even I don’t remember why most of the times but actually, it’s not that bad.”

 

“Don’t you miss being surrounded by competent people? Or, you know, as close as you get to it on Selina’s team.”   
  


“Ugh, so much. I wanna nuke his head off everytime he opens his mouth.”

 

“Okay, enough about that,” of course Sue wouldn't let go of this so easily. “This is why you should date. Have something going on your personal life so you don’t use all you energy on work.”

 

“I could get a dog.”   
  


“And you and I both know that’s only gonna happen when dogs learn how to go on walks by themselves and put on their own food, and then when that happens you wouldn't want one because they can’t go to the supermarket and buy their own food.”

 

“But I love dogs.”

 

“That doesn’t mean you should have one.Trust me.”

 

“So dating is supposed to solve all my problems?”

 

“It’s a distraction but fuck’s sake, Amy. You sure need a distraction right now.”

 

“I have things outside of work.”

 

“Yeah, hanging out with your ex.”

 

“Dan’s not my ex.”

 

“Sorry, I forgot” she says ironically. “I meant hanging out with your frenemy who you clearly wanna bone.”

 

“I must inform you that’s not the case, Dan is nothing more than a friend, you know, we have drinks together and talk about random things just like we’re doing right now.”

 

“So you do have free time,” she states.  “But it looks like you’re in a relationship with each other.”

 

“No”, she laughs, “we aren’t.”

 

“I’m just saying Dan is occupying space that could be used for something real.”

 

“Ok, you can set me up with your friend.”

 

“You won’t regret it.”

 

“What’s his name?”

 

“Will. He’s a lawyer, he is a great guy, really, we’ve been friends since college but i’m just not sure if he is your type.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Well, he’s not a narcissist asshole.”

 

Amy rolls her eyes and fakes a smile. “Great.”

 

*

 

She had sent a text saying she needed to see him as soon as possible. Then she texted him the address, luckily he was leaving a meeting when he saw her messages and called an uber. His mind went to the worst scenarios because well, that’s what happens when your best friend send you a message like this and stops replying. 

 

Fortunately, when he gets off the car he sees Amy in the middle of the sidewalk, looking at her phone as if nothing bad happened. It’s like this weight has left his chest, when he realises she’s okay.  

 

“Ames, what’s the emergency?” 

 

“There’s not an emergency.” she says without bothering look away from her phone. 

 

“You said that you needed to see me and -”

 

She crosses her arms and stares at him. She hates that he is so tall she has to look up to him.

 

“Yeah,” she realises that she wasn’t exactly clear in her message, “I have a plane to catch in about three hours so hurry, let’s go.”

 

He stays still, trying to process what she meant. 

 

She grabs his hand and drags him to a very fancy store. And to his surprise not just a random store, a lingerie store. 

 

“Don’t say a word,” she points her finger to him, “If you act like yourself even for a split second you won’t hear from me for a long time, got it?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“I need your help.”

 

He looks around. 

 

“I’m still not following.”    
  


“I need your opinion.”

 

“Oh. Ames, you could have texted me a picture”, he smirks and leans closer to her. 

 

She gives him a look.

 

“Ok. Tell me why you need my help.”

 

“I have a date. In New York,” she says. “Remember I told you I’m going there for some interviews, right? Well, I had lunch with Sue last week and she set me up with a friend of hers who lives there.”

 

“And you need my help for…”

 

“I need to buy some new lingerie and I thought since you’re always brutally honest with everything…” 

 

He laughs.

 

She turns from him like she is ready to leave the store but he manages to hold her waist before she can move further. 

 

“You know, this is a mistake, Dan. Of course you can’t act like a grown up, I should have known.”

 

“Easy Amy, I didn’t say anything. I will happily help you. I just don’t get why you need me for this. I never knew you were the type of person who acts like this is a big deal.”

 

The idea of Amy buying lingerie or dressing differently for someone else makes his stomach sick. He hates the idea that she thinks she should impress someone. She doesn’t need this and anyone who doesn’t see how amazing she is when she’s being herself shouldn’t be with her. 

 

“Ugh, what is wrong with me?”

 

“What’s wrong with you? Are you kidding me? You’re great, you’re smart and cool…” he says checking his phone, as if those aren’t the nicest things he’s ever said to her.

 

“What? You ran out of compliments?”

 

He puts his phone on his pocket and hates that he is supposed to be the friend she goes to for this kind of advice. 

 

“Just show me what you have in mind”, he replies because he didn't’t even notice he was complimenting her. It was just the obvious. 

 

Amy chooses a few pieces and mostly only talks to the saleswoman who shows him where he can wait for Amy while she tries on the pieces, the woman smiles too much and says in an annoying voice that he can wait in the boyfriend area. He nods and doesn’t correct her.

 

He still doesn’t get why Amy wanted his help until she comes out of the dressing room to the privaty ‘boyfriend area’ with nothing but a burgundy set of lingerie that looks incredible on her. The dark color contrasts on her skin and her blond hair. Dan doesn’t think he ever saw Amy this confident, she just stands in front of him, wearing the sexier lingerie he ever saw, and he’s seen a lot, as if she’s fully clothed. 

 

She checks herself in the mirror and turns her face to him. 

 

“What do you think?”

 

“I. I… You look. I mean. It’s not like... This color -”   
  


“Can you stop acting like you’re having a stroke? It’s just bra and underwear.”

 

“You look good, Ames.” 

 

“Isn’t it too much?”

 

“No, it’s perfect.”   
  


She gives him a smile.

 

“I still have four more pieces to try on. You look like you need some water”, she says going back to the dressing room.

 

“I’m fine,” he says too quickly and hopes she doesn’t pick up his tone. When he knows Amy isn’t going to be able to hear him he says “ _ fuck _ .” because it’s the only word that comes to his mouth.

 

He already hates whomever is gonna see Amy like this. 

 

*

She woke up in her bed, the sheets were messy and the sunlight was coming through the window in a way that made it look like time had stopped passing. It was one of those moments where you can’t be sure if it’s morning or afternoon, she looked at her bedside table and the clock read 12pm,  _ that’s weird.  _  But what was more curious was the person lying next to her. 

 

_ What the hell happened?  _

 

Dan looked at her, maybe realizing that she had just woken up and without saying a word he kissed her. It was fast and wet and hot just like it was the last time they did this. He moved to her earlobe, kissing it and tracing his tongue on her skin. She couldn't help but scratch his back, pulling him closer to her. It was so second nature, she didn’t even had to think about it. The minute he kissed her she stopped worrying about everything else.

 

He kissed her neck and then her breasts through her burgundy lacy bra, she wanted more and from the way he was looking at her so did he. Dan kissed her again, biting her lower lip which made her moan. 

 

“Dan, I need-”

 

“I know.”

 

It’s always been a mystery to her how good they are at this, considering they haven’t slept together more than four or five times over ten years.  

 

He removed her bra and took a moment to look at her. He has never been subtle about wanting her, at least not when it’s just the two of them. Deciding it was enough, deciding she couldn't wait, she managed to flip them so he was sitting with his back on the headboard and she was on his lap, her legs on each side of his. He kissed her again, as hot and as desperate as the last time, running his fingers through her nipples roughly making her entire body feel the sensation. They made out slowly like this for what felt like hours and she felt him hard beneath her, he broke the kiss and put his mouth on her nipple, kissing it and licking it like his life depended on this. 

 

She kissed his neck, breathing and moaning into him. 

 

He moved his hand from her back and placed it on her underwear and -

 

“Fuck”.

 

Amy woke up with her alarm. And it took her a few seconds to realise what kind of dream she was having.

 

_ Shit.  _

 

Maybe it was the look on Dan’s face when he saw her on the store earlier that day or maybe she’s just horny and it doesn’t mean anything that he was the on in the back of her mind. Sex dreams don’t mean anything. 

 

It doesn’t mean anything. She leaves the bed and goes to get ready to meet her date. 

 

*

 

Like Sue said Will isn’t an asshole. He’s smart and way less interested in politics than she thought he would be. 

 

Amy has a lovely time at the restaurant and things get even better when he goes with her to her hotel room. 

 

The next day they make plans to see each other again.

  
  


*

 

“Excuse me” he says to the waiter, “have you seem a blond woman, like, this height?” 

 

They have been coming to this tiny and very colorful restaurant so much lately that he hopes the doesn’t have to give more information, the waiter must know who he is talking about, they always come here together. He hopes the waiter gets it cause how else would he describe Amy? Annoyed? Glued to her phone? A weird mixture of terrifying and sexy? 

 

This is a great spot for them. There aren’t many people who work in politics, all the times they have been there they only ran into a guy who worked for Purcell while they were lobbying, so they don’t have to pretend to be nice and have small talk with people they don’t care about. It’s one of those restaurants that aren’t on the radar yet, the food is delicious but it’s very cramped, so in a few months when everyone else knows about this place is gonna be impossible to get a table without waiting for hours. They will have to find another regular spot and as much as he’s getting sick of eating Thai food three times a week he isn’t looking forward to do that. 

 

“Oh, yes.” he says like he knows who Dan is talking about. “Your wife is on that table over there”, the young guy points to the back of the restaurant and Dan can see her shiny hair and all black outfit. 

 

“Thanks,” Dan doesn’t even bother to correct him and follows the path to the back of the restaurant to meet Amy. It never occurred to him before that people might think he and Amy are together, yeah, half of D.C. thought they were fucking when he first came to work for Selina but that’s different, it made sense. It doesn’t look like they’re in a relationship. Not now, anyways.

 

She’s on her phone, no surprise, but she places it on the table when he seats in front of her and gives him an awkward smile. “Dan.”

 

For a moment it feels like they haven’t seen each other in weeks instead of four days. It’s always like this between them, well, since the friendship agreement, every time they spend a few days apart it’s like they don’t know how to act with each other. It would be so much easier if they were still working on the same campaign. 

 

“Amy. How was New York?”

 

“Good.”

 

She looks at the menu and doesn’t elaborate on that, he knows she’s gonna order the same food she always order with a glass of white wine so why even bother. Dan kinda wants to ask her about her date but he also kinda doesn’t give a fuck. 

 

They talk about the campaigns for a while, Dan tells her what he’s been up to, nothing special. When their food arrive Amy takes a bite of his Green Chicken Curry and her eyes rolls invontally because how delicious it is. 

 

“God, that’s good”.

 

“I told you you should try other things. Do you wanna more?”

 

“Yeah,” she takes another bite from his place, “I’m gonna order this next week.”

 

“I’m gonna be in California.”

 

“And?”

 

“Nothing, just I didn’t know you would want to come here by yourself.”

 

“That’s ridiculous, I can enjoy my own company. And I’m not coming by myself, Will is gonna be in D.C and I mentioned this place”.

 

Oh. Her date.

 

“Why would you do that?”

 

“What?” she says, taking a piece of chicken from his plate. 

 

“It’s our place, Amy”, he answers and it’s not like he has to explain it further, she has to get why he’s upset. 

 

She rolls her eyes. 

 

“Oh, can you stop being a dick,” she says sharply, “it’s not like we’re the only two people allowed to come here.”   
  


“But that’s where we go and now you’re gonna ruin it by bringing someone else,” he knows he sounds childish but he can’t help it.    
  


“You realise you sound nuts, right? It’s a fucking restaurant, Dan.”

 

“But it’s  _ ours. _ I would never bring a date here.”

 

“You would never bring a date anywhere besides your apartment.”

 

“I can tell you like ten top restaurants for a romantic evening if that’s what you want. Do you prefer french or japanese food?”   
  


“I wanna come here and nothing you say will change my mind.”

 

“Ok,” honestly he’s done talking to her about this. Fine she will bring Charlie or Will or whatever his name is but she’s gonna ruin their favorite restaurant. 

 

“No. it’s not ok, you freak out just because I mention i’m coming here with a guy as if you can tell me what to do.”

 

“I wasn’t trying to do that, I’m just saying we have our place, this is where we go to get away from work and everything else, once we start bringing other people it’s no longer just ours.”   
  


“You’re putting too much pressure on a restaurant,” she says, “Look, I wanna be able to talk to you about this stuff.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Because you’re my friend?”   
  


“I never needed to know about your love life to be your friend, just like I don’t go on telling you about mine.”

 

Says the guy who asked her a billions of questions when she was dating Ed. 

 

“Because I’m not interesting in knowing about the dumb women you screw.”

 

“Don’t hurt their feelings, Ames”, he says faking a smile. What an asshole. 

 

“Then don’t hurt mine.” It’s not what she wanted to say, she hates to let him know he has the power of hurting her feelings, knowing him he would only talk more about this. She should have known better. 

 

“You can’t be serious,” he laughs, “You met in this guy like, what, twice?”

 

“It’s not about him. It’s about you being a good friend only when it’s convenient for you.”   
  


“Oh, I’m sorry I wasn’t interested in your date, you wanna talk about it?”, he says in the meanest tone he can pull. 

 

“Fuck you, Dan.”

 

“C’mon, tell me about it.”

 

“Don’t pretend you care, okay. We’ve been here for almost an hour and you changed the subject every time I mentioned New York.”

 

“You’re just mad at me because i’m honest.”

 

“No. This is not you being honest, it’s you acting like a five year old child who needs to be the center of the attentions all the time.”

 

“I’d rather be the bad guy instead of lying.”   
  


“No shit.”

 

“It never bothered you before.”

 

“It’s bothering right now.”

 

“Why? Because you want me to be something i’m not so you can have a friend and talk about your date?”

 

“I know exactly who you are and I still though you could be happy for me, maybe that’s my problem.” 

 

“I can do that, I can be happy because you met a guy who hasn’t revealed to be an asshloe yet. You want me to lie to you? Okay, let me try then, Amy, I want to know everything about your new toy boy, oh, and I didn’t use you for information all those years ago and I didn’t fuck your sister. Happy? You’re right, lying is so much better than telling the truth.”

 

_ Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. _

 

He knows he went too far even before he realises Amy is crying.

 

Amy never cries. He doesn’t know what to do, he has never seen her crying. It’s so strange, she looks small and so broken and she’s not even fully crying, there’s just a few tears coming from her eyes and somehow that’s even worse. 

 

“Fuck you, Dan”. 

 

She grabs her bag and leaves.


	4. Chapter Four.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now, that he had some time to think about it, to play that scene again and again in his head because he wasn’t able to fall asleep, he may agree that in fact, he was the one being childish but it doesn’t mean he is wrong. He isn’t jealous, no, Amy should fuck whomever she wants to, but it’s not like she is in love with the guy or is gonna start dating him. Whatever. He couldn't care less about Amy’s love life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is super short but writing dan suffering bc of amy gives me so much joy lol so I had to write it. Stay tuned for the next chapter! 
> 
> Thank u for all your comments and kudos :)

Over the years Dan has learned that Amy takes everything very seriously, from her job to her personal life, but one of the things she is so intense is staying mad at Dan. It’s been four days since their little fight and she still hasn't answered any of this text, It’s not like he’s worried she is gonna disappear again, she has a campaign to manage this time and he likes to think she is way too smart to make the same mistake again, but who knows. It’s fucking childish that she couln’t handle the truth, if you ask him. It’s not like any of what he said was new to her.

 

Now, that he had some time to think about it, to play that scene again and again in his head because he wasn’t able to fall asleep, he may agree that in fact, he was the one being childish but it doesn’t mean he is wrong. He isn’t jealous, no, Amy should fuck whomever she wants to, but it’s not like she is in love with the guy or is gonna start dating him. Whatever. He couldn't care less about Amy’s love life. She is just gonna find some boring ass less interesting version of him, anyways. It doesn’t bother him, he even takes it as a compliment but he also doesn’t think about the fact that right after their fight he called Lauren, who’s like a boring chatty always happy version of Amy. Fucking her didn’t make anything better. 

 

But it’s a sunday afternoon and he doesn’t think a random fuck will take his mind off things. Since he’s not travelling for the campaign and he has the weekend off he should be at Amy’s apartment by now. Ever since things got easier between them Sunday became his favorite day, he would sleep until noon and wake up with his phone ringing with Amy asking him if he wanted to have lunch together, the answer was always yes, even when he wasn’t hungry or when he’d rather spend all day in bed. They usually went to that Thai restaurant, but now he thinks that if Amy decides to speak with him again that place isn’t gonna be an option anymore. If only Amy could see that he’s not entirely wrong. So instead of spending the day with Amy, he’s alone in his apartment with a fucking headache that won’t go away and the desicion to call or to not call her. 

 

It’s not the first time he’s left with this decision, when she moved to Nevada he spent days wondering if he should have called her, at the end he didn’t, if she wanted to move to that awful place and ruin her life and not even tell him about it, fine, that was her problem. Nothing he could ever say would change her mind. 

 

It was easier to focus on something else, or rather someone else. It helped that he was always busy but from time to time he found himself thinking about her more than he wanted to. It’s not like he needed her close, no, he just thought he knew Amy Brookheimer enough to know she would never do something like this. Or rather, he knew her just enough to know that she probably didn’t think this though, in two months top she would be back in D.C. ruling everyone. So he chose not to call her, not that it would matter in the end, he had a feeling she wouldn’t pick up his calls. 

 

Nothing he could say right now would change her mind as well. Amy is not like every other person he knows, an apology won’t mean anything to her simply because she will know right away that he doesn’t mean it. Dan wishes he could just skip to the part where she forgives him for, well, for being himself and everything is back to normal again. 

 

He also knows that it’s not that easy. 

 

Maybe that’s why he likes Amy so much, she doesn’t fall for any of his bullshit.

 

He remembers a conversation they had, a few weeks before their fight, she was lying on his couch, her legs on his lap, they have been watching a movie and eating cookie dough ice cream. It was before one of the craziest weeks on the campaign, he had texted her to come to his apartment instead, he still needed to pack a suitcase. Amy doesn’t come to his apartment very often and when she does she spends too much time observing the place, as if she’s trying to find clues about his life, about his interests, instead of just asking him. 

 

When the movie was finally getting exciting she grabbed the TV control that was placed on the side table, paused the movie and put her ice cream away.

 

“Dan, do you want to talk about it?”, she asked, putting her hair behind her ear. 

 

“Talk about what?”, he said, taking his eyes off the movie. Did Amy really paused it when they were gonna find out who the killer was? He didn’t even wanted to watch this movie, it was her idea, but now he was dying to know.

 

“We’re not a couple but we act like one.”, she said bluntly, studying his face.    
  


He took a spoon full and ice cream and putted on his mouth, letting it melt slowly to give him some time to think about it.  

 

“I guess I realized.”   
  


“Actually, We don’t have to talk about it,” she said nervously. Amy hates talking about these things, he doesn’t even know why she bought it up, from the look on her face he does know that she wishes she didn’t. But she said it, it must have been in her mind lately, that’s what matters, she can’t take it back now. 

 

“No, we should. See, I never slept with someone I wasn’t willing to lose. Like we talked about it, I screwed up every relationship I’ve ever had, but the thing is, I never cared. That’s probably the only difference between you and me,” he looked at her and she nodded her head, giving him a clue to continue, “You know, just one time. I met this girl who could give me so much political information if I played it right, and I did, and when I was done I broke up with her, and what I hadn’t realized at the time was that I actually really liked spending time with her. The famous you don’t know what you have until you lose it, you know, all that bullshit. So I just want to spend as much time with you as I possible can before I screw up again. Cause eventually that’s gonna happen.” He looked at her, her eyes were watering, she was paralized, her hand still holding the spoon and the other one holding the cup of ice cream but she was trying to look put together. Amy was looking at him and he didn’t know what to do. He shared too much, that’s not what he does, it’s not what either of them do. They’re awful when it comes to anything that might be close to talking about their feelings.

 

“Sorry”, he said, not really knowing what he was apologizing for. 

 

It didn’t matter, it was the first time he apologized and actually meant it. 

 

“No, you’re telling the truth, that’s good and… surprising.”   
  


“Can we please finish the movie now?”

 

She nodded and un paused the TV. They never talked about this subject again.

 

And now, weeks later he screwed up, just like he knew he would. He didn’t want to, but it happened and there’s nothing he can do about it. He wishes he could go back in time and ask her about this guys she is seeing, he could have pretended he wasn’t jealous, he could have not said all the awful things he said to her that day. 

 

Since he can’t do any of those things he picks up his phone and calls Lauren again. 


	5. Chapter Five.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ok, what can I do to have my friend back?”. He really meant it. He realised a long time ago that he enjoys having Amy Brookheimer in his life, it’s time to stop being a fucking idiot and listen to her. 
> 
> “You can start by going to Sophie’s kid’s birthday party with me and then I’ll think about being your best friend again.”
> 
> “Hell no.”
> 
> “Then forget it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is my favorite chapter so far, I used a line from the movie that I was dying to use, so  
> please let me know what you think about this chapter :)

Before leaving the office to watch the debate he was stuck in meetings with Ben and Kent all day, they finally decide to figure out what they’re gonna do with BKD once the election is over. They have a few clients here and there, and they do most of their consulting work over the phone or skype, since Selina is their biggest client and they are working full time on her campaign, but once it’s over they will have to actually focus on their business. Ben was the one who called the meeting which means he doesn’t really have high hopes for Selina to win, the numbers are tight, Tom James keeps changing his mind about whether he wants to support Selina’s campaign, that doesn’t look good for the press. Dan has told a million times to just forget the guy but it’s not like Selina listens to anyone, especially when it comes to Tom James. He’s gonna fuck her over like he was done a million times in the past. The real thread is Kemi Talbot. they all know it. And there’s also Jonah. The most laughable person who’s becoming more popular by doing the exact opposite of what the other candidates do. Amy pulled a milagre on this one, Dan doesn’t think anyone else would make Jonah appear like a good choice. He can’t give her that much credit, thought, since old conservative Americans, strange enough Jonah’s target, are dumb as shit. If Ben wants to focus on their consulting agency it means something isn’t right, he’s worked on enough campaigns to comprehend ahead of the time when something isn’t perfect. He says they should think about their connections, he even scheduled a meeting with a guy who’s thinking about running for governor in California and wants to build this profile. Sure, everything can change in any minute but it’s better to have a plan B. He’s glad his plan B is BKD and not television. Although, that’s his plan C in case things don’t work out for their consultancy agency. 

 

But enough of BKD, he thinks as he sees Gary running around to buy Selina a cappuccino since she clearly doesn’t drink the coffee that’s on her dressing room. He has a job to do. He can worry about his future once this debate is over. Or just ignore it, whatever he’s feeling like in the moment. 

 

 _New. Selina. Now_ is a great slogan but lately she’s been using “ _Man Up_ ” a lot, using it too much if you ask him but she manages to put on a fake smile once she’s on stage and it is so easy to believe in whatever she’s saying. He has to admit that Selina has a carisma no one else in this election has. She smiles and answers the questions and shoots some good points at the other candidates. It’s a tough debate, thought. The questions are quite brilliant, to be honest, not the same old _what are the challenges facing our economic_ or _what would be your first act if you become president_ , they ask about accessible healthcare and imigration laws and gun control. Buddy Calhum embaraces himself in the first five minutes, which is hilarious to Dan, not because he is Amy’s ex-fiance or anything, he just thinks the guy is pathetic and shouldn’t even be running. If Dan was a nice person he would just advise him to let it go, to go back to Nevada, say on camera that he supports Selina and whatever but since his numbers are even more pathetic than he is it wouldn’t help her so much. In two weeks tops he’s probably gonna give up anyways so it’s good to have someone to laugh at and make jokes about in the meantime. 

 

Speaking of Amy, she really did a great job because in a two hour debate Jonah managed to say only four problematic things, when, in the beginning of this campaign he used to say the same amount in every sentence. He clearly has a good script and rehearsed a lot, It’s obvious that he’s not being himself, on stage he is this character that Dan hasn’t quite figured out yet. It’s so easy for Dan to imagine Amy threatening Jonah every time he makes a mistake, that he laughs at his own though. 

 

Once the debate is over he sees Amy and he’s not sure if he should try to talk to her. He watches her for a while before deciding to do anything. She’s so alive, there’s no other way to describe, bossing everyone around like she likes to, probably solving multiple things at the same time, all while looking fantastic with her short waved blond her. Her cheeks look pink and her eyes looks furious. She looks so different than she did that day on the CNN studio, he likes both versions, he really does, but right now she looks like the old Amy. 

 

The Amy that says things like a dying dad can be a get out of jail free card. 

 

The Amy that takes no shit, especially from him. 

 

The Amy that likes to plot and manipulate even though she will never admit it to his face. 

 

She’s finishing a phone call, from what he can hear it’s about a meeting to discuss Jonah’s people skills, whatever the fuck that means. 

 

“Ames”, he approaches her because otherwise he would just stare endlessly. It’s not like she is gonna ignore him forever, he can at least try to have a conversation with her.

 

“Dan,” she says, her voice is firm and she does not sound interesting at all, “what are you doing here?” 

 

“I don’t know if you remember but I still work for Selina.”

 

“Yeah, I just thought you’d be at some after party as soon as the debate is over.”

 

“Good to know my competition thinks I should celebrate tonight”, he smirks.

 

“For fuck’s sake, get to the fucking point.”

 

“Can we please talk about what happened at the restaurant?”   
  


“There’s nothing to talk about.”

 

“C’mon Ames, you can’t stay mad at me forever. I’m sorry I was a jerk”, he tries to sound convincing but she knows it’s not completely true. 

 

She rolls her eyes. Of course she could see right through him. He was sorry she was mad at him, he wasn’t sorry for behaving like the did and she knew it. Of fucking course she knew it. 

 

“Can we just go back to normal?”

 

“I hate that you think you can screw up and come back running and I’ll have my arms open for you. That’s not how it works”, she crosses her arms, as if she’s trying to protect herself.    
  


“So, enlighten me, how does it work?”

 

“You really want to go back to normal?”

 

“You know I do, Ames. You’re probably missing me too.”   
  


“You wish,” she replies. 

 

“Ok, what can I do to have my friend back?”. He really meant it. He realised a long time ago that he enjoys having Amy Brookheimer in his life, it’s time to stop being a fucking idiot and listen to her. 

 

“You can start by going to Sophie’s kid’s birthday party with me and then I’ll think about being your best friend again.”

 

“Hell no.”

 

“Then forget it.”

 

“I bet you don’t even wanna go. Why are you going anyway?”

 

“I haven’t seen my parents in weeks and I ran out of excuses to not go to the party.”

 

“Then lie again”, he says. It’s simple like this and he has no idea why Amy is even willing to go, it’s not like she enjoys being around her family that much. 

 

“I tried. My mom was smarter and asked if I was available in a different date, I said I would be travelling and she was like  _ oh great _ , I was just gonna ask you to have dinner with us but now you can come to Ann’s party, this is gonna be so much better”, she says the last part in an over excited voice mocking her mother. She undoubtedly doesn’t want to go but will be there anyways. 

 

“Your mother outsmarted you, I'm impressed”, he laughs, at first just to annoy her but he does find it funny that someone who is as brilliant as Amy can’t come with a good excuse to escape her own family. 

 

“I wasn’t thinking straight.” She doesn’t mention that her mother called her when she was at home an hour after they had their fight in the restaurant, that she didn’t even pay attention to what she was saying, that she stayed quiet almost their entire conversation because she was afraid her mother would notice from the tone of her voice that she was about to cry. “And I’ve been so busy with the campaign that I haven’t seen them in forever.”

 

But she didn’t cry. Not about this. She would not give him the satisfaction, not that he would ever find out but still. 

 

“Anyways, if you want me back in your life that’s what you have to do. Prove you’re a good friend,” she says her final offer. 

 

“How that proves that I am a good friend?”

 

Dan has no idea what she means by being a ‘good friend’, he’s already a fucking good one. 

 

“I don’t know, maybe you will do one good thing that won’t do anything for your career, fuck, I don’t know, just do it or don’t, I don’t give a shit about you right now.”

 

“Where’s your boyfriend? Haven’t introduced him to the family yet?”   
  


“Stop right there. If you want to be my friend then no more comments like this, got it?”, she looks at him deadly in the eyes.    
  


“Geez, Amy,” he says, “Ok, fine. But I'm genuinely asking, isn’t easier to take him to the party? Your parents aren’t exactly my biggest fans.”

 

“No one is.”

 

“You still haven’t answered”, he almost mentions that yes, she is. 

 

“He’s not my boyfriend, we’re just seeing each other. And If I bring Will he’s gonna be polite and try to make my parents like him, I don’t need this at my niece’s party, I need someone to get shitface drunk with me and make fun of people. And my mom likes you so it won’t be a problem.” 

 

“If you wanted to take drugs with me and go to a kid’s birthday party why didn’t you say already?”

 

From the look on her face, it seems like she’s thinking about it but almost right away she shakes her head, “Surprising, It wouldn’t be a bad idea but if we show up high at my parents parents house my dad is gonna hate you even more. Besides, we’re not teenagers anymore so doing drugs at a family event isn’t as fun as it was back then,” she says casually while typing something on her phone. 

 

He laughs.

 

“What?”

 

He gives her that look that basically says  _ cut the bullshit _ . “Am I supposed to believe you did drugs when you were a teenager? Weren’t you too busy with the debate team?”

 

She didn’t do drugs when she was a teenager, in fact her few experiences with drugs happened during her sophomore year of college but she kinda hates that he thinks he knows her so well. 

 

“A girl can multitask, Dan. So, are you going with me?”   
  


“You really don’t wanna face your family alone,” it’s not a question but he stills waits for her answer, “Ok, I’ll do it, Amy.”

 

“Great. Saturday, 2pm. You know the address.” She says, patting him on the shoulder and leaves. 

 

When he looks around he finally finds Ben again, who’s been close enough that he probably heard their entire conversation. When Dan greets him he just says, “You know, Dan, for the first time I’m getting optimistic you won’t become that creepy guy.”

 

He has no idea what Ben is talking about but right now doesn’t really care enough to find out. 

 

*

 

They decided to drive together, it was easier after all. 

 

He went to her place and she took forever to get ready, choosing between three dresses over and over again, which is very unusual for her. She ended up choosing a navy blue one that unintentionally matched his suit.

 

Amy’s Dad opens the door when they arrive, he gives his daughter a hug and ignores Dan. She gives Dan a look and he says, “Nice to see you, Mr. Brookheimer.”

 

“You too, Dan”, he replies drily. “Your mother thought you weren’t coming,” he turns to Amy again. 

 

“I know we’re late, Dan had a meeting with Selina this morning and my car broke so I had to wait for him,'' she lies, there’s no real reason for him to be at this party other than emotional support and he knows Amy won’t even admit it to herself, let alone admit to her father who pretty much hates him. He wonders if she mentioned that he was coming with her, probably not but her father didn’t seem surprised when he opened the door. Knowing Amy, he knows that she would like to avoid all the questions her family would ask if she mentioned him. He’s aware that not just a drinking buddy this time, he is her _ talk to me while I try to not murder these people I don’t care about _ buddy..

 

She also took forever to put on makeup, even though it looked like she was barely wearing any.  They caught up while he was lying in her bed and she was applying eye shadow. He wished they just stayed there, doing nothing, talking about anything and everything, they could watch a movie and sleep midway through it, but he was supposed to be a good friend, so he didn’t even mentioned it. 

 

She looks around them, “Anyway, where’s the birthday girl? We bought a present”, Amy says in an enthusiastic way that doesn’t suit her a bit. Also,  _ we  _ bought a present, it reminded him of Mike’s wedding. 

 

Once they pass the living room he can see that there are children running around the house and eating too much sugar, he can already tell he’s gonna hate every second of this birthday party. 

 

Amy introduces him to a few people - also not wanting to make small talk but at the same time trying to be polite - and they chat with the guests for a bit, neither him or Amy interested in hearing about those people’s jobs or what’s like to raise ten year olds or how they  _ must  _ watch the new Avengers movie,  _ it’s not just for teenagers, I swear!,  _ one of Sophie’s friends said. He almost spilled his drink when Amy gave a fake smile and said she will watch it after work one of these days. He doesn’t know what’s funnier, Amy watching an action movie or having the time to watch it after work instead of working even more. 

 

(He discovered some time ago, when they were lobbying and they used to strategize together all day to the point that continue to work wasn’t gonna be productive anymore, it was better to order food and watch a movie, that Amy loves horror films, love isn’t a strong word in this case, she’s obsessed with them, it’s pretty much the only thing she watches, from classics to new ones, the more bizarre the better. She likes those and old black and white romantic comedies but they haven’t watched these together, he just sees the DVDs around her apartment a lot).

 

They also chat with her mother for a while, she asks Amy about her new job, that’s not that new anymore, and says it’s such a shame that they don’t work together anymore. He misses working with her and strategizing together and having someone who actually takes him seriously. When he first came to work for Selina they barely said  anything that wasn’t filled with sarcasm and insult to each other and now look where he fucking is, standing in her parent’s living room on her niece’s birthday party. He should have asked Jonah for a job when he had the chance, he got him elected once, and for some reason Jonah thinks they’re friends so ‘no’ wouldn’t be an option but now it’s too late, truefully, the only problem is that he is too invested in BKD now, if he left Selina it wouldn’t look good for the agency. And Ben and Kent would kick his ass. 

 

But then he receives a text with an article about the debate and excuses themselves from a boring conversation saying they got an important message from work - which Amy’s childhood friend believes since she doesn’t care about Amy’s career and has no idea she and Dan are working against each other this election. It looks like no one in this party has any clue about the political world so any so they can use anything to get out of boring conversations.  They spent about an hour discussing it, Dan thinks the writer gave Jonah too much credit, it is not that hard to look like he knows what he's his doing, it’s a presidential election, for fuck’s sake, he should not be praised for that. Amy thinks the writer has never watched one of Selina’s good speeches, and makes sure Dan knows that Leon West isn’t doing an amazing job like Selina thinks he is doing. They try their best to keep their voices low because otherwise it would look like they are arguing - and they are, but in a political way, in a good way, in a way they’ve been arguing since the day they met.

 

*

 

Amy said she needed more alcohol and disappeared into the party leaving Dan alone for a few minutes, well, until her mother found him again and went on telling him how happy she was that Amy found someone who understands her so well and that she knows Amy is happy just by looking at her which is funny because they both looked like they didn't want to be there but he gets what she's saying, since they arrived Amy became more and more relaxed, she's been laughing at his jokes and doesn't pull back when he touches her waist. He knows that she isn’t faking it because there’s so many people around them, she will gladly tell him to fuck off whenever she pleases - and she did, many times in the past.

 

He keeps his conversation with her mother mostly because it will annoy Amy when she comes back, Amy knows he has the power of being incredible charming when he wants to. He tells her mother that it was great working together for Selina again even for a brief period of time and she says she doesn't get why Amy left Selina she thought they were such good friends and Amy has always been so loyal to her, Dan just reassures her that Amy made the best decision career wise. He absolutely hates conversations like this but he can pull his best smile on and keep on for hours, as long as her mother tells her later what a charming young man he is and she should invite him more often. He wouldn't come back but he’s imagining Amy furious when she hears this and honestly, this is all he needs for a good night of sleep.

 

But she doesn’t come back. He’s been talking to her mother and now her aunt has joined the conversation for about ten minutes and he doesn’t think he can handle one more minute. He looks around and notices she’s nowhere to be seen, but it doesn’t take him long to find out where’s she is probably hiding. He is kinda pissed but doesn’t blame her for leaving him to deal with her relatives for her, however, there’s something so domestic about it that makes him swallow another sip of his drink. 

 

She should’ve at least sent him a text so he wouldn’t suffer alone.

 

He looks around once again and remembers where she probably went. On the second floor there's a door with a tiny ‘A’ written in green sharpie next to the knope, it’s almost faded and it looks like a child wrote it. He opens the door without bothering to knock. He wasn’t surprised that Amy decided to hide somewhere, it’s not hard to puzzle together that this was a common habit of hers when she’s around her family for a long time but at least she was there, at least she made an effort. He didn’t even care enough to go to family events no matter how many times his mother tries to invite him. He doesn’t even remember the last time he saw his brother, maybe it was four or five years ago, he has no idea. 

“Thanks for leaving me downstairs alone”, he says, finding her lying on her stomach on her bed, “it was  _ really _ nice”. He doesn’t give a fuck but oh, playing with her is so nice. Any reaction he can get from her is a good thing, it’s way better than the silent treatment she gave him these past week. It is a lot better than the radio silence between them when she moved to Nevada.

 

She gives him a half smile half a smirk and it’s enough for him to want to go back to their old banther. 

 

She looks so young, maybe it’s her sourradings, maybe she’s just happy or content or the closest a person can get to it while trying to get the most twit and laughable person on the planet elected. She looks drunk with tiredness but still so beautiful, there’s no other way he can describe her right now. 

 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” she takes her head off her arms, looks at him and adds, “I needed to escape.” Her voice is so raw, maybe she was about to fall asleep before he arrived. 

 

“So did I, but I was in a very, very long conversation with you mother and aunt and I couldn't find a way to leave.”

 

She throws her hand into the air and gives him that look that it is so familiar to him. “Consider that karma.”

 

“Call whatever you want but they like me, Ames, your mother even said  _ oh it’s such a shame we haven’t seen you lately, Dan, you and Amy should come by more often _ , and they think we’re dating by the way”, he says and can’t help but smirks and he can see her face becoming red. 

 

She just laughs. 

 

“Oh,” she gets up and sits with her legs crossed on the bed again, “don't worry, it’s easier to let my mother think whatever she wants to think. I’m sure I’ll suffer the consequences of your conversation more than you.”

 

“I know, I didn’t even have the chance to deny it.”

 

She rolls her eyes at him. As if he was going to deny it, she knows him enough by now. 

 

Dan looks around, there’s so many pictures in the room, Amy and her parents, Amy with her sister, a few pictures of some relatives he hopes he has never have to meet, Amy with a poodle. Amy in her graduation. Many pictures with friends he doesn’t know if she’s lost contact with. There’s also some awards too, most from the debate team because of course she was a nerd like that in high school. Near her bed there’s a black and white version of the poster of the movie  _ Charade _ and he doesn’t think it’s the same cover he saw on the DVD a few weeks ago in her house, it looks more modern and minimalistic. The walls are light blue and there’s two big shelves full of books next to the window. Amy hasn’t lived here since she went to college but somehow, after all those years, the room screams her name, not in a way that she would decorate her apartment the same way now but still, it’s  _ so _ her, for a second he wonders what would have been like if they meet when they were younger.  

 

Dan prefers her current bedroom though, it’s very simple and sophisticated and there’s only a few decorations items, like two black and white prints on the wall. Her D.C. apartment is full of light and the white walls make it a really peaceful place, well, when it’s not full of open suitcases on her living room. Sometimes it looks like she almost doesn’t live there aside from the tons of books he’s sure she didn’t have time to read.

 

He sits on the bed next to her, and finds some old postcards and jewelry on the nightstand, he looks around once again, there’s so many details, it doesn’t look like just random shit thrown around, it looks so  _ lived _ . “I can’t believe I’ve never been to your room.”

 

“Yes, you have, many times,'' she states, without bothering to look at him. 

 

She remembers the first time he ever went to her apartment, when she had no idea he was a total asshole, they were supposed to go to a restaurant that evening but they ended up not leaving the house until the next day.

 

“I mean this one.”

 

“You’ve been here once or twice, I guess. And I haven’t changed anything since college, it doesn’t feel like my room anymore,” Amy explains while looking at the room, feeling foreign in a place once she loved so much. Even when she visits her parents she doesn’t always go to her room, she usually just stays in the first floor unless she’s staying over. And she hasn’t stayed over in a long time. She doesn’t even remember the last time she went to her old room. 

 

He shrugs. “Still.”

 

“It’s better here, right?” she asks.

 

With the door closed they can’t hear anything that’s happening outside. Now he gets why she came here, he just wishes she’d done it sooner, it would have saved them a lot of boring conversations. They would have said hello and disappeared in her room and no one would be able to find them. 

 

“There are probably twenty children downstairs, any place is better than there” he reminds her mostly because coming to this birthday party was her idea. 

 

“I used to hide here a lot, that’s what I was planning to do when you stopped by that Thanksgiving since I didn’t have my phone with me.”

 

He nods, waiting for her to continue, for some reason he always knew when Amy needed to vent. She doesn’t have any idea of how transparent she is. 

 

“I know my family isn’t that bad, well, my sister is,” she stops for a second. She hates talking about Sophie in front of him, they have never talked about what happened all those years ago,  and this is not a conversation she wants to have right this moment, or ever, “anyways, I know how lucky I am but I still feel suffocated when I'm here.”

 

“That’s okay.”

 

“I shouldn't, should I? Does this make me a terrible person?”

 

“You’re many things, Brookheimer, and as much as I hate saying this terrible isn’t one of them.”

 

“You set the bar very low so please don’t be offended when I say this means nothing.”

 

“No offence taken. But you shouldn’t feel this way or damn it, better yet, you should accept that you feel this way and move on. Simple like that.”

 

“Nothing is ever a big deal to you, is it?”   
  


“A few things… yeah no, you’re right.” He sure isn’t about to list what’s important to him because not many things are, and it’s better if she doesn’t know that she is on that list. 

 

She puts her hands on her face and lets out a sigh. “If someone told me five years ago that I would be coming to you for advice I would rather set myself on fire.”   
  


“And if someone had told me that you would actually listen to me I wouldn't have believed it.”

 

“I’m listening, I didn’t say I agree.”

 

“But you will, eventually, when you think about it.”   
  


“It’s just...When I'm here it’s like I'm always stuck and I’m never doing the right thing. It’s like I’m not doing the right thing professionally and...I don’t know how to explain it.”

 

He looks...not worried but like he doesn’t know what to say, which is very unusual for him. 

 

“I’m not a therapist though I highly recommend you seeing one”. She gives him a look. “What?” he asks.

 

She plays with the hem of her dress, quite not looking at him directly into his eyes. “Did you? After London?”   
  


“I went to three sessions, maybe two, I don’t remember much. The pills the other doctor gave me seemed more than enough at the time.”

 

“What? You couldn’t handle talking about stuff?”

 

“No”, he answers shortly, trying to sound unbothered but Amy can read him as much as he can read her. 

 

Talking about their feelings with Dan Egan in her childhood bedroom, honeslty, her life is a fucking mess.

 

“This room really had an effect on us,'' she laughs, trying to go on a lighter topic, he sure looks like he needs it, “I don’t think any of us shared this much in...ever.”

 

“We should never do that again.”   
  


_ Best thing you ever said _ , she thinks. A three minute conversation like this was enough for a lifetime, for both of them.

 

“Agreed.”   
  


“Ready to go home?” he asks and gets out of bed. 

 

“Yes but It’s so warm here”, she lays back again.

 

“I’ll buy you a pizza if we leave without saying goodbye to anyone.”

  
He offers her his hand and she ignores him, making herself more comfortable.

 

Still in bed, she pretends to think about it for a second. “That’s a really good offer but no, my mother will call me non stop after.”

 

“And I’ll let you choose all the toppings.”   
  


“Still a solid no.”

 

“We can come back in like five years to say we’re sorry and have another heart to heart conversation in your bedroom”, he offers. 

 

“I won’t bring you here voluntary ever again. I’m already regretting it, this was a bad idea.”

 

“Would you rather be downstairs with anyone else? Sure, I do believe you.”   
  


“Oh, shut the fuck up, Dan,” she says, “you’re literally the most annoying person I’ve ever met. And I worked with Mike and Gary for years.”

 

The truth is, she rather be anywhere with him, even when she doesn’t want to. It’s so easy being around him when they’re like this, bathering and joking around. However, it’s been really painful at times. 

 

“C'mon, Ames, let’s go _ home _ ”, he almost whines in the way he does while still looking as serious as ever when he wants something. 

 

“Ok,” she says rolling her eyes, it’s not like she wanted to stay but this bed was so comfortable she didn’t mind sleeping for a few hours. She could just not care about the campaign - when she accepted the offer she thought she wouldn’t - but that’s her chance of proving that she is the best, of proving she can do this by herself, prove that she can do this without Selina and Ben, so she’s not letting things like a good eight hours of sleep get in between her goals.  If it means getting the least prepared person on earth to be the president of the United States, fuck it, she will do it. 

 

She gets out of bed and grabs her bag from the baby blue armchair across the room. Suddenly Dan stops midway through opening the door, from the look of his face it seems like he forgotten something, but she can see his phone in his pocket and she’s pretty sure he didn’t put his wallet or car keys anywhere else. 

 

He turns around so he’s facing her and he is staring at her gaze, and he has that look on his face, smirking, and hell, why does he look so good.

 

“Oh, let me see your yearbook,” he teases.

 

“Over my dead body”, she says. No, no, not in a million years. 

 

She walks to the door but he is in front of her and puts his hands on her shoulder to stop her. 

 

“Oh, c’mon, Ames. What’s the fun in visiting your friend’s house if you don’t see embarrassing stuff like that, I bet you even used a Virginia Woolf quote.”

 

She rolls her eyes. 

 

“Stop.”

 

“I bet I can find it… It’s usually…”, he looks around her old room and Amy’s eyes quickly go to the shelf next to her bed.

 

_ So easy. _

 

He tries to grab the book and there’s no way she can stop him, he’s so much taller than her so there’s no point in standing in her toes. She should have worn high heels. So, she takes off her flats, leaves the bag on the floor and climbs on her bed, putting her hands on this shoulder to stop him from reaching for the yearbook and without meaning to she puts the weight of her body against his. They’re so close. Closer than they’ve been in a long time. When he notices it, he drops the yearbook on the floor and wraps his hands on her waist holding her. Amy giggles. She can’t help but giggle. Here she is, in her high school bedroom, standing this close to the man she tries so hard to not have feelings for. 

 

She doesn’t remember the last time she felt butterflies in her stomach, as cheesy as it sounds. 

 

(Deep down she remembers, she doesn’t like to but she does remember, it was in that hotel hallway in Nevada, walking to her room while feeling so marvelous, he was so close, she could feel her cheeks turning red as he swiped her card to open the door, it would have been so easy to stand on her toes and kiss Dan before they opened that door - not that it would matter, Sophie was there, it wouldn’t matter because he still choose to fuck her sister for a job opportunity.) 

 

Since she’s standing on her bed Dan has to look up to her and suddenly his eyes aren’t playful like a few seconds ago. Damn, why he looks so good with a white shirt. He stares at her seriously and she knows what’s gonna happen next.

 

They’ve made this mistake already and she knows it’s a mistake but for some reason…

 

She wants to. 

 

No.

 

No.

 

No.

 

Maybe. 

 

Yes.

 

She wants to not want it so badly.

 

Still holding her waist, Dan pulls her closer and closes the space that was left between them and kisses her neck slowly, as if he was exploring what was like to kiss her like that, or maybe he wasn’t sure how she would react. Maybe he was waiting for her to tell him that this isn’t a good idea. She feels like she could melt into his arms when his tongue touches her skin.   

 

It’s not usually like this. 

 

There’s no rush. His hands travel from her waist to her collarbone, his fingers touching her gently. Once he stops she wraps her legs on his waist and he sits them on the bed, he’s still waiting for her to have a reaction, to say something, but instead she just kisses him. She isn't sure of what she would say in this moment, anyways. There were so many moments she wanted to be able to kiss him just to shut him up and now she finally had an opportunity.

 

The kiss is long and they move in sync, she had forgotten that Dan kisses like his personality, it’s demanding, rough and stubborn. It’s also sweetbitter, both literally and metaphorically.  But she can’t help but lean against him even more. It feels so good, like it always does.

 

Like it did almost ten years ago, like it did two months ago, like it does now. They could have been doing this way more often, she thinks. 

 

He flips them and suddenly he’s on top of her, kissing her neck again, and drawing circles with his fingers on her inner thigh, adding more pressure to it. When he looks at her she’s biting her lower lip and all he wants is to kiss those lips forever. 

 

And he does. They lost track of time, it feels like they’ve been kissing for hours. Her hands are everywhere, in his chest, feeling his skin though his shirt, in his back, stretching her nails against it, in his hair, pulling him even closer. It’s like they can’t get enough. 

 

Without breaking the kiss he takes her underwear off and Amy lets out a moan when he finally touches her folders, moving his fingers to rub her clit. 

 

He trust one finger inside of her and then another one, and moves to kiss her neck again, hoping there’s no marks because if there is she will kill him but he doesn’t focus on that though for a long time, she’s so wet and the sounds she’s making, Dan want this scene to last forever in his mind. 

 

He looks at her when his fingers leave her, and there’s this disappointed look in her eyes that she tries to hide, but it only last until he kisses her left inner thigh. She gets rid of her dress and he just stares at her, she bits her lower lip again and he doesn’t know what to do first. He kisses her again and cups her breasts with his hand through her bra and this one is so much prettier than the one she tried on the store, he notices, and also, there’s a front clasp which makes everything easier. He catches one breast on his mouth, and Amy gasps, and then he moves to roll his fingers on her nipple. 

 

The last time they did this it had been fast and rough and they both had been drunk, not really thinking about the consequences but there’s something so intimate this time, and yet it seems like they’re afraid of moving too fast, of crossing a line they shouldn’t cross, maybe they are aware that do have something to lose this time.

 

They always had something to lose but there was always something to gain - being the great strategics that they are it’s a miracle they haven’t realised how powerful they would be if they joined forces once and for all. But she guesses they were never good at making decisions about their personal lives, she’s sure she isn't. 

 

Amy helps him take off his shirt and they’re both breathless. Before she can reach his belt he opens her legs and places a kiss on her right knee and kisses his way up to her pussy. Suddenly his tongue is on her, tasting and sucking her in the way he likes, he adds one finger, and continues to eat her out, between her moans she says his name and it’s making him even harder. When she comes he has an urge to look at her. 

He kisses her, his tongue tasting just like her, and they’re full on making out again. 

 

He puts her on top and kisses her breasts while she rolls her hips against him and tries to take off his belt, her hands are firm, like she is exactly sure of what she is doing, there’s no regret in her eyes, also. He helps her take his pants and underwear, and she strokes his dick a few times and places it in her entrance, letting a moan when she feels him inside of her. 

 

It’s so overwhelming, he doesn’t think he can ever get used to it.  “Fuck, Ames”. 

 

He places his hands on her waist to help set out a rhythm, and her boobs are almost in his face, he kisses it, making her nipples peak. She throws her head back and one of his hands goes to her ass, stroking and squeezing it. She looks so hot riding him, her mouth slightly open, letting out moans as he sucks at her nipples. 

 

“Dan,” she says quietly and he knows she’s close again. He changes the rhythm, hitting a spot that drives her crazy, he can see from her eyes, and she continues to ride him. They both come soon after that. 

 

They’ve barely said a word, she noticed. The other times they had sex they’ve been loud and outspoken, and she doesn’t think it’s because they’re at her parents house. There was this risk, if they said anything, they might regret what they were doing and put an end to it. She didn’t want that, it was so much easier to touch him and feel him so close than to think about anything else. 

 

They lay together for a moment, not saying anything but from the look on their faces there’s too much to be said. If they stayed in silence maybe this moment could last forever. Dan touches her cheeks with his thumb, caressing slowly. 

 

“Dan, are we in love with each other?” she asks, turning to face him properly and putting her hand on top of his.

 

His expression doesn’t chance, he is still staring at her gaze, which makes everything worse, she’s not ready to be this open around him, and she doesn’t think he is either. 

 

They’ve been playing this game for far too long, though, if they can’t be honest with each, right here and right now, when will they be? 

 

He nods. “Yes.”

 

“What are we going to do about it?” What do you wanna do?”

 

“Nothing”, it comes almost as a whisper, Amy doesn’t think he intended that, it’s not hash like the word would have implied, it’s almost delicate, almost as if he isn’t sure, “there’s nothing to do. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I love you for free, Ames”.   
  


Dan has never been selfless, never, not even when it came to her, he always demanded her attention and, before things changed, needed to be the first person she texted in the morning, he was constantly wanting her to drop whatever was going on her personal life to strategize with him, and she liked that, no matter how tiring and chaotic work got she knew he would always invite her to have a drink at the end of a long day, it was like recharging energies, for both of them. It breaks her heart but in a good way, she’s relieved somehow, they wouldn't work well as a couple or whatever they decided to be. She knows she deserves someone better than him, she should want someone better than him. This way, they both get to keep each other in their lives without the possibility of ending up hating each other.  

 

Maybe in another universe where they weren’t so self sabotaging, where they had the courage to face their feelings sooner, where they realised they could have both power and love, where they though that liking and caring about someone isn’t actually the end of the world. Maybe they would have been great together. Maybe. 

 

“I love you for free”, she repeats what he just said for lack of better words and places her head on his chest, wanting to feel his body next to her, enjoying while this minute lasts before they go back to pretend this conversation never happened. 

 

When she arrives home that night she falls asleep thinking about that universe.

 


	6. Chapter Six.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once Dan is in her apartment she can remember exactly why she missed him so much. She’s been trying so hard for the past few months to ignore her feelings, she’s been trying so hard for the last few years to not admit that she feels something. Always too afraid to find out what exactly. Her life is so much easier when he’s not around but she still finds herself wanting him to come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading this fic! I had so much fun writing it these past few months. and oh, please let me know your opinion on this chapter/story. :)

  
  


The election night is a mess, Amy remembers bits and pieces of it but not the entire thing. What she remembers most was that fucking headache that didn’t leave her alone for even one second, there was too much sound, too much light, too much everything. At times it felt like her head was spinning around. Too much everything indeed but not enough time to think. People were running around and cursing as usual, nothing special about it. Jonah was demanding attention from everyone who worked on the campaign, as always. It almost seemed like a normal day. She also remembers Mike trying to get a quote from her but she doesn’t even know what she said. Or if she said anything. 

 

It felt surreal that all that work was leading to this night and nothing would matter after that. She was sure all that work would mean next to nothing in the end so it wasn’t a surprise that she felt pain in her stomach when it was announced that Jonah had won. It felt like a joke, almost. Someone must have been pulling on a prank but she looked around and everyone was celebrating, everyone was happy. There was no reason to believe this wasn’t happening. She worked on his campaign, she spent countless nights awake to make sure everything was happening in their favor, she had felt this rush every time his numbers went up, so, wasn’t she supposed to be happy?

 

Well, she was proud of herself but the idea of Jonah as the president of the United States is not something she thought would actually happen, it actually terrified her. Maybe he should have accepted Selina’s old offer to become her Veep, he sure wouldn’t cause too many problems that way. He’s gonna fuck thing up in one year, no more than that. It should have been someone else. 

 

Her name is attached to his in every single article, being obvious that it wasn’t his charisma or intelligence that got him elected, it was her strategy, and her phone was blowing up, hundreds of messages per minute from people she doesn’t even have the names saved on her contacts list, it was overwhelming. She chose to ignore every message for a while. Eventually, she went to the party, she had to, but three hours later she made her way into her apartment and turned off her phone. She needed to sleep for at least twelve hours, for fuck’s sake, which doesn’t happen right way because Dan was at her doorstep, waiting for her. 

 

They drank and talked about their plans for the future. Dan told her that a few weeks ago Ben had called a meeting and they discussed their ideas of BKD, and in case Selina didn’t become president, they would set up a small second office in New York since most of their clients lived there and they needed to pay extra attention on them right now. She didn’t ask if they thought this was gonna happen, Ben wouldn’t have made this decision if he taught Selina was going to win, it seems like she was the only one who was so sure that Selina would finally win this election.

 

Dan also told her that he got an offer to do some interviews for CNN and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to but obviously Ben and Kent though this might be a good idea if he manages to mention BKD a few times. He also said that people probably miss seeing his face on TV so yeah, he’s still a total self absorbing dick. 

 

It felt easy. Never in a million years she thought she would get to this place with Dan. There’s still so much banter and the maximon she went without telling him to fuck himself was probably two hours, their dynamic didn’t change, she wouldn’t want it to change honestly, it just felt easier than what it was a few years ago. It was always like that with their friendship, when it got easy and fun and  _ light  _ something had to change. She should have known that by now. He would be leaving in less than a week, she said she was happy for him and would visit him in New York but Amy isn’t sure if he believed her, he always had the ability to read her like no one else. 

 

Everything happens fasten than she expected, the next day she’s in a meeting with Jonah to discuss his plans and then three days later Dan goes to her house to pick up a suit he left there and to say goodbye. 

 

“I guess I can’t talk you into a road trip to the city?” he asks quietly as they approach his car. All of his suitcases are in the back, this is really happening. 

 

It’s not like she’s not used to not being around him. These past few months, she feels like they finally reached a good place, especially after their conversation at her parent’s house, it’s like they finally accepted what they are to each other and made their peace with it. And now who knows what may happen with this distance between them, they probably won’t know how to deal with it. 

 

“Tempting but no, no one actually believed Jonah would become the president, not even me...now the real nightmare starts and I have to deal with it.” She crosses her arms and leans closer without meaning to, it’s like her body tells her one thing and her brain tells another. 

 

“Fuck, that’s gonna be the worst.” He laughs. Dan is probably having way too much fun with this.  

 

“Tell me about it,” she sighs, “I already have more problems to deal with than I had in Selina’s first month as Veep. And the election was five days ago.”

 

“Wait until he moves to the White House, you’re gonna have even more problems.”

 

“I don’t even wanna think about it.” she brushes it off. “Do you need help with anything else? I can send some of your stuff.”

 

She thinks of mentioning that once she has enough time she can go to New York to visit him but she doesn’t wanna make promises that she can’t keep, at least in the next few months. 

 

“Don’t worry, there’s no need, I will only be there for like six months”, he reminds her. “If anything changes you will be the first to know.”

 

He’s keeping this apartment in DC and staying at a flat in New York City so he doesn’t have to bother looking for a place there. It’s is temporary but something in her mind tells her that it may not be, he did mention that he’s going to start looking for a place there once he figures things out but didn’t give more details. And It’s not like he needs to be in DC right now, Selina just lost the election, he can work for BKD in any of the two cities, it doesn’t really matter where he lives, and she’s seen the countless emails from a CNN producer when he showed her an article he received when they are at her niece’s birthday party. From the subject she couldn’t tell what those emails were about but it sure can be the job offer that he mentioned. Maybe that’s why he’s leaving DC so soon after the election, she doesn’t want to ask. She doesn’t want to know.  

 

“Last change to ditch DC and come to New York with me, what do you say? You can drive if you want to and BKD will always have a place for you”, he offers again and she knows it’s true but what is she supposed to do? Run away with him like she’s some teenager who doesn’t know better? Her career comes first, it’s what she knows best. It’s what she has always done. It’s what she  _ wants _ to do. It’s what feels safer. 

 

Some people may find it selfish but it’s always been so simple to her: her career comes first. 

 

But the idea of a road trip doesn’t seem so bad. Listening to a podcast to avoid those new pop songs that keep playing on the radio, making jokes about everyone they know, taking the longer way, sleeping in crappy hotels even though they could arrive at their final destination in a few hours. 

 

“I’m actually content, you know.” she says, putting her hair behind her ear, and it’s actually true, he should know that too. “I did this, Dan, I managed a successful campaign by myself after so many others that went wrong, I need to see this through.”

 

He doesn’t say anything at first, just nods his head. It’s not a surprise, the way she’s been acting a few days prior to the election just shows how much she loves doing this. This is what she loves and he feels weirdly happy for her. 

 

“Wow. What happened to us?”

 

“It feels like we’re getting a chance to start over.”  _ Away from Selina, away from you _ , she thinks. A few months ago she would have enjoyed that too much but now It feels sweetbitter. Years ago she wanted that but not anymore. She can’t help but think what would have happened if she stayed on Selina’s team. 

 

“True.”

 

“Perfect timing.”

 

_ No. Not really.  _ __   
  


“Well, goodbye forever, again.”

 

“See you in a few months, Ames.”

 

He gives her a hug and for a moment it feels so safe, so good.

 

“Oh, before I forget, thanks, Amy.”   
  


“For what?”

 

“For teaching me how to love someone.”

 

She smiles as if her heart isn’t breaking at this very moment, “Anytime.”

 

*

 

It takes her a moment or two to find her keys after Dan leaves and before she enters her building she hears a familiar voice calling her name, a voice she hasn’t heard this close in months. Maybe only on TV for the last three weeks.

 

She turns around and sees Selina getting out of the car. She’s wearing her usual power red, a color no one else in her team was allowed to wear, only this time it’s not a dress but a matching blouse and trousers, and she doesn’t look like someone who just lost like when she did on the last election. Her chin is up high and it may be the best form she saw Selina in the past year. She can also see Gary inside before she closes the car door. 

 

“Hi ma’am” Amy suddenly tenses. Why would Selina drive all the way to her house a few days after the election? It’s not like she’s heard from Selina in the past days but knowing her she Amy is sure that she would rather be alone. And sure as hell Selina didn’t come here to congratulate Amy. 

 

“Hello, Ame.” she gives Amy her best on stage smile. 

 

When Selina doesn’t say anything else there’s an awkward silence before Amy opens her mouth. “Would you like to coming in? A coffee, maybe?” 

 

It’s so strange to see Selina after months of working for Jonah. They didn’t leave things in the best term and getting a coffee together wasn’t in her list of priorities. She could tell herself that leaving the Meyer team was just leaving her old boss and coleagues but it was more than that. At the time, it was so easy to leave, she had a job opportunity that could really change things for her, but as the time went by Amy found herself missing those old days more than she thought she would. She didn’t regret her decision, though. Selina had been treating her like shit for the past year, maybe even more than that, and while Jonah wasn’t the easiest person to deal with he was actually scared of Amy, which made her job so much easier.  Almost painless at times. 

 

Selina isn’t the easiest person to be around but once, a long time ago, they really worked well together and Amy misses that. She used to think of them as friends, no matter how weird it sounds. They spent so much time together that sometimes it really felt like they were friends. 

 

“No, no. I have a meeting in twenty minutes but I figured I stopped by here first.”   
  


“Sure…” Amy says, still not following. 

 

“I just saw Dan leaving, what’s going on with the two of you?”she asks as she takes off her sunglasses. 

 

So she’s gonna talk about anything before getting to the point, great. That’s very unlike Selina, when she has something to say she just says it, no small talk. Especially Amy. 

 

“He’s going to New York.” Amy replies but Ben must have told her that, she knows that.   
  


“That’s not what I asked,'' she says in a tone that makes Amy feel like a child. She fights the urge to roll her eyes, again, not knowing why, it’s not like Selina still is her boss. 

 

Of course Selina knows, Dan worked on her campaign, and she can see right thought Amy, Selina stares at her knowing there’s more. Sometimes she thinks she hired Dan all those years ago just because of Amy’s reaction when she asked what she thought about him. Selina never does or says something just because. There’s always a million reasons and there’s always something for her to gain. And while most people find it horrible that’s what made Amy stick with her for more than a decade. Selina is determined, she doesn’t give a fuck, and probably has never cared about a person the way she cares about herself, but Amy stills admires her so much. It’s like she has a power of making people want to talk to her. Maybe it’s the reason why she says what she didn’t want to say.

 

Or maybe she misses when they were friends and once in a while she would share something from her personal life, as if it was a random comment but actually looking for advise. 

 

She also misses when Selina actually heard her, listened to her ideas, treated her like a valuable person on her team. Back when Amy was her chief of staff she felt like she was doing something important, funny how she went from that to work on a fucking useless library. 

“He didn’t choose to stay.” Amy keeps her voice steady because there’s no reason for Selina to feel sorry for her. She’s in the best place she’s ever been in years. And she won’t give the opposite impression because of Dan Egan. 

 

She can feel Selina stopping herself from saying ‘ _ oh’ _ in a sarcastic way and she almost wishes she didn’t, Amy deserved that reaction, she’s being pathetic for feeling this way just because he moved an hour and 30 minutes away by plane. 

 

“Did you ask him to make a choice?” she asks instead. Okay, she clearly wants something, never in a million years Selina would ask her that if she didn’t have any other motive. 

 

“It wouldn’t have mattered.”

  
They’ve already realised they don’t work well together even if they tried but she doesn’t need to tell Selina more details. She doesn’t even know why she said it in the first place. 

 

“I can’t tell you what to do Amy, well, I can’t tell you what to do anymore, I’m not your boss, but I know you. I know you’d only ask if you were sure and I can’t understand how you’re the only person who hasn’t realised that for him when it comes to you there’s a choice.”   
  


She’s ready to tell Selina that it’s not like this, that was never like this, when her former boss keeps talking. 

 

“It was always _ Amy this _ ,  _ Amy that, _ we should step up our game, look what Amy is doing and blah blah blah. He tried but he did a shitty job at hiding that he missed working with you.” 

 

“That’s not the same thing, but, you know, never mind. I think there was something you wanted to talk to me about.”

 

“Yeah, I can do that. Let’s get straight to the point.”   
  


“I’d like that.”

 

“I’m offering you a campaign manager position on the next election, we both know Jonah is gonna fuck up, there’s no way that fucking idiot is getting re elected so I’m planning ahead.”

 

For a moment Amy really wants to believe this is a genuine offer but she knows better. “Ma’am you’re saying this just because I got him elected.”

 

“That’s part true, do you want me to fucking lie to you? I won’t feed you some bullshit you won’t believe, you’re not some newbie eager to change the world and all that shit,  but that’s not the entire reason, Amy. I realised that when I come back to the White House and I will come back I want to be surrounded by people I trust. And you’re one of them. ”   
  


“Gary didn’t leave…”

 

“We both know Gary is only good for… shit, I don’t even know. That motherfucker wouldn't be able to win me a election even if his life depended on it, and there are days that I think he would take a fucking bullet for me.”

 

Amy shakes her head, still thinking about what she should say. 

 

“I know I wasn’t the easiest person to deal with lately but neither are you.” Selina says. 

 

Of course Selina doesn’t know how to fully apologize. But maybe this is the closest to it she ever came in her entire life. 

 

This can be what she didn’t know she wanted. 

 

 “So, we’ll talk in three years?”

 

“Two. We’ll have a lot of work to do.” 

 

*

  
  


Amy wakes up slowly before her alarm with the sunlight coming through her window, she doesn’t remember when she fell asleep last night, the clock on her bedside table reads 8:39am and since it’s Saturday she can do whatever she wants, including going back to sleep for the rest of the morning but then she remembers the amount of work she has to do this week and decides to read the material Bill sent her. 

 

She gets out of bed, takes a shower and pours some coffee in the biggest mug she can find in her kitchen, ready to check her emails and get some work done. She was supposed to go out with Will last night but canceled their plans and told him they should just be friends when he called her to know if she was alright.  Trufully, there was nothing wrong with Will, they had fun together but it was never more than that, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel bored after one or two hours together. He was kind and smart and handsome but still so fucking boring. 

 

Honestly she had no idea why she was seeing him again for the past few weeks, maybe it was because he had officially moved to D.C and texted her saying he needed a friend, maybe because it was easy, but not the kind of easy that she felt with....She shakes her head and takes a sip of her coffee, needing to clear her head - Jonah just posted some bullshit on Twitter and she has to deal with the consequences of it. 

 

Also on Twitter she reads what Selina’s been up to lately, it’s been two months since their conversation and it seemed like they still had an agreement even if they didn’t talk about it anymore. 

 

She grabs her phone, before even thinking about the possibility of working with Selina again she has to focus and deal with Jonah first but before she can do anything her phone lights up with a call from Dan. She doesn’t answer right away, she keeps staring at his name wondering if her decision last night had anything to do with him. Fuck. 

 

“What a beautiful day in DC, what are you doing right now?”

 

“How do you know?” she asks. 

 

“Maybe you should fix your intercom, I’m in your building when I could be outside enjoying the sunshine or you know, drinking some coffee in your apartment.”

 

She takes a second to realise he’s probably not joking, but she spoke with him just two days ago, he would tell her he was coming, well, it’s probably a last minute work trip. 

 

“Weren’t you supposed to be in New York?” she says as she stops in front of the door before opening it. 

 

“Just open the goddamn door, Ames.” There’s a something light about his tone, quite playful. She can’t get the door to open on the first try or maybe she’s not awake enough to see Dan after three months. 

 

When she opens the door she still has the phone on her ear, for some reason she didn't ended the call and neither did him. “Hi”, she says, almost shyly. She fights the urge to wrap her arms around his neck and hug him. 

 

Once Dan is in her apartment she can remember exactly why she missed him so much. She’s been trying so hard for the past few months to ignore her feelings, she’s been trying so hard for the last few years to not admit that she feels  _ something _ . Always too afraid to find out what exactly. Her life is so much easier when he’s not around but she still finds herself wanting him to come back. 

 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were planning on coming here?”

 

He comes closer and cups her cheek with this thumb and just kisses her without explaining anything. She kisses him back almost immediately. 

 

Only when they break the kiss she manages to think straight. “Dan, what the fuck are you doing?”   
  


“What I should have done months ago.” he answers staring at her gaze. And it’s such a dull line, she’s sure he can come up with something better. 

 

“I thought we agreed we shouldn’t do this anymore. You can’t just come here and kiss me and what? That’s it? No explaining why you’re in my apartment 9 in the morning.”

 

“Right, I’m sorry I just didn’t have a plan and -”

 

“You came to D.C and the minute you see me you kiss me and you didn’t have a plan?”

 

“You kissed me back, it’s not like it’s all my fault.”   
  


“It never is, right? And don’t tell me it just happened, I know you, what the hell are you really doing here?”   
  


“Ames, I don’t know, actually, I do know,” he says, “I really miss you and I don’t give a fuck that I will have to come back to New York in like, four hours, but fuck, I just needed to see you.”

 

“You didn’t have to kiss me just because some impulsive need to see or whatever it was.” 

 

“No, you don’t understand, it wasn’t some impulsive decision, I think about you all the time and I don’t think it’s because I’m living in New York and I don’t see you often like I used to but I thought it would get better, maybe I’d stop thinking about you for a couple of days but you’re always there.”

 

Amy says nothing. 

 

“I know we’re not good at this shit, and that’s why we agreed on stop seeing each other so we wouldn’t fuck things up but I needed to come back, I needed to see you, I know what’s like to not see you for a long time and I don’t want to do that again.”

 

“And I’m supposed to believe we will just live happily, there’s a reason why we don’t work well together and newsflash, Dan, it’s  _ us _ .”

 

“Ok, now you’re just lying to yourself. You should know by now what you mean to me.”

 

“Dan.” 

 

“Ames, I’d rather fail with you than win or even try with anyone else.”

 

This time Amy is the one who initiates the kiss. 

  
  


*

 

Election night, 2024.

 

He can feel the panic on her face as soon as they leave the building without even having to look at her. The street was almost empty, everyone who works in politics are inside their offices, probably losing their minds over the votes, the wind is breezy and it almost looks like a calm, normal day. He still turns around because he knows her, she doesn’t need anyone to tell her that everything is fine but she does need to be heard, it doesn’t matter that he thinks that she is freaking out for no reason, the least he can do is just listen to her. When Amy makes a decision it means that she really thought about it again and again, and she sticks to it, he’s not worried about that, he just want her to fucking relax and enjoy this moment. 

 

“Do you think Selina is going to survive without us for a few hours?” she asks as he places his hand on her waist to hold her and stare at her eyes. And the way she stares back… Dan will never get used to it. 

 

“It’s election night,” he reminds her and she rolls her eyes at him, as if the past twenty four hours weren’t crazy enough to make her forget it, she waited for this day for too long, for years even, nothing would make her forget about it even for one second. Selina had followed her plan and hired Amy as her campaign manager and did actually let her do her job without yelling at her every two minutes or making fun for her for whatever reason like last time, and, unsurprising, Amy did a marvelous job, according to the all the data Kent has pulled recently, it looks like Selina Meyer will be the next president of the United States. Fucking finally.  

 

Selina also hired BKD, now a well respected consultancy agency, which means that he finally got to work with Amy again. And this time was even better than he hoped. They have been living together for three years now and while most days were chaotic, seeing Amy somewhere that was  _ theirs _ , somewhere that they didn’t have to deal with anyone else, somewhere that she called home, it warned his heart in a way he didn’t think it was possible. 

 

“She’s either drunk and threatening to kill anyone who comes near her or maybe drunk and calling us non stop”, he says honestly, he knows it won’t help but he never said things just to make her feel better anyways. 

 

She likes hearing the truth, no matter how bad it is.

 

He takes his phone from his pocket and there’s way too many messages and e-mails and he would never do this in the previous elections but he honestly doesn’t give a fuck right now. That’s not the most important thing that’s gonna happen today. He ignores all the messages and turns his phone off. He gives her a look like and says playfully, “Your turn. I dare you, Brookheimer.”

 

She rolls her eyes and even though she looks annoyed there’s a small smile coming from her lips. It almost looks like she’s doing something illegal, and since she is the campaign manager on an election night she probably thinks it is. She sighs but turns off the phone that’s been in her hand this entire time, throws it on her purse and sticks her tongue to him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction that she’s actually enjoying this but Dan knows damn well that she’s enjoying it.

 

(Before turning the phone off she saw an e-mail from Ben and fuck, she hates Dan for making her want to do stupid things.)

 

And he can’t help but laugh. 

 

Amy lets out a breath and he thinks she’s finally calming down.    
  


“Great”, she manages to say, fighting the urge to open her bag and grab her phone and hold it closer to her. The world may end at any moment for all that she knows. 

 

He places a kiss on her forehead and even though they avoid showing affection in public places she doesn’t seem to mind, and there’s no one around by any means. “We’ll be back before the results anyway.” he says just to reassure her and she nods. 

 

Amy puts her hands around his neck, leans in for a hug and ends up with her face pressed on his chest. It’s a habit that she developed in the four years that they have been dating and he enjoys it too much. Nothing has really changed in their dynamic, they banther almost every second of everyday like they always have, but now they have sex and occasionally say how much they love each other without using the actual words most of the time. 

 

Dan was the first to say I love you and she said right back, without a doubt in her voice, it’s not something they say often but when they do… he just can feel the honesty in her eyes. He loves Amy like this, open and still so herself. He doesn’t even like to think about all the years they wasted not talking to each other, not being this real with each other, sometimes he’s afraid there will never be enough time to enjoy what they have.  

 

She looks up at him.  “So, no honeymoon?” she teases him because he’s been trying non stop to find a free week in their calendars so they can travel somewhere. He’s been leaning towards Switzerland lately. Or maybe northern Italy. One sunday afternoon where they have been working together in their living room she joked that he’s been putting as much energy into planning the honeymoon as she has been putting into planning the election.    
  


“Oh, no, no, there’s gonna be a honeymoon. I got us the penthouse at the Plaza. Share your schedule with me again and I will plan a real one.”

 

Hopefully they will celebrate getting married  _ and  _ Selina winning the election, she thinks to herself. It couldn’t get better than this. 

 

“So, do you have the rings?”

 

He puts his hand on his head and murmurs _ shit _ . She is so going to kill him. 

 

“Shit, I’m joking, fucking relax, Ames, the rings are here.”

 

The idea of getting married like this was surprising Amy’s idea. Since Dan proposed they hated every meeting they had with a wedding planner. Neither of them wanted a big wedding, the idea of thousands of people who they don’t care about and having to plan the wedding while working on a presidential campaign with lots of travelling just didn’t seem appealing to them. And they didn't care about who was going to be there, in the end, all that mattered was the two of them. So, she suggested they do it on a day everyone would be too busy to even pay attention to them. Election day was the perfect choice. The ceremony would be simple and fast, and since no one else would be there they would feel more comfortable to say their vows. 

 

“I can’t believe we choose the most chaotic day of our lives to get married.”

 

“Knowing us, I can”.

 

He leans in and kisses her, then they walk to the place they’re getting married, just the two of them, exactly how they wanted to. As future husband and wife, as best friends. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this fic! 
> 
> You can find me @ lilyscjames on tumblr.


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